aixcentric

Followers to this blog may remember I posted about a fun morning in Montmartre with a Paris Greeter – a local who volunteers to show visitors around his or her neighbourhood.  That made me wonder what I would learn from a similar walk a little nearer home – and the answer was… lots!

Visiting Marseille on a reasonably regular basis has familiarised me with the central area but I haven’t been much further afield; and my companion for the morning, sociologist Anne, has a keen interest in community life and the evolution of Marseille as a social entity. 

Marseille born-and-bred Bertrand turned out to be an ideal guide, drawing on his own long experience of the city to interpret its personality, its foibles and its unique flavour.

Planning our tour with Marseille Greeter Bertrand

 He offered us a choice of tours and we decided to go along the Corniche, visiting traverses and houses tucked away from the busy road, plus the little fishing creeks that you can’t normally see from the car.

We did all the planning over coffee at La Samaritaine then set off to get Bertrand’s car.  En route, he explained to us how the shore-line during Antiquity was metres inland from the current Vieux Port and took us to see something extraordinary….a Roman supermarket!

Goodness knows how many times I’ve wandered past signs to the Musee des Docks Romains, thinking it didn’t sound too interesting.  In fact it is fascinating.

When the authorities began to reconstruct the Panier in 1947, after it had been dynamited during the war, they were amazed to find what had been lying beneath the buildings – an entire dock with huge embedded dolia which would have contained 2000 litres of wine, or oil.  Ships would have pulled up alongside the dock with its dolia and filled up their amphorae for export – or alternatively delivered produce to the store.

It’s not reconstructed but just as they found it.  They then went on to build an apartment block on top of it – so what you see in the photo is the ground floor of some families’ flats.  Imagine that!  It’s open every day exc. Mondays 10-18:00 and is well worth visiting as it is one of very few such docks in the world.

Then we drove along the Corniche where the rich 19th century families built their villas.  Marseille was a great port and its people entrepreneurial: businessmen cashing in on the opportunities offered by colonialism and the new routes through the Suez Canal.

They enjoyed their access to the beaches but we learned that, today,  French law says that people should be able to access the sea,  so we skirted round the side of the famous ‘Le Petit Nice’ restaurant, down steps, under their terrace, and admired the lovely view. 

Amazingly on this November day, there were bathers, but nothing like the numbers who take the plunge from the rocks during the summer months.

At the Vallon des Auffes and the Anse de la Fausse Monnaie, we saw small fishing communities and the cabanons which are now so highly prized. Bertrand told us of his own summers spent at the family cabanon at Montredon, diving and fishing during the long sunny days.

And on we drove, past rocky islands, old factories, German gun emplacements, roads unchanged in 80 years, past Les Goudes on to Callelongue –  the very end of Marseille.

We had a fascinating excursion and I would thoroughly recommend it to visitors to the city. The greeters give their time free but one is asked to make a donation (online) to the organisation.  Here is their website: http://www.marseilleprovencegreeters.com/en/.  Bertrand, now retired,  enjoys showing people his town and likes to keep his English fluent.  For us, it was a very special opportunity to spend time with someone who loves his part of Provence.