aixcentric

To celebrate its 90th birthday this year, the mayors of Marseille’s 1st and 7th arrondissements have organised ‘Dimanches de la Canebiere’, the second of which takes place this coming Sunday – 26th February.

The road is pedestrianised and there are various attractions. This month there is going to be a special cycle track, circus performances, clowns, music and so on.  This new initiative has a special purpose in that the balance in Marseille has swung very much towards the new shopping centres in the spruced up docklands, leaving the traditional shopping centre somewhat depopulated.

So is it working?  We visited in January along with ‘thousands’ of people, according to La Provence.  It was certainly thronging with families enjoying a small market, street games and large carnival-style puppets.  It is a delight to wander up normally busy roads, right in the middle!

But we were amazed to see how few shops were open.  We wanted a coffee/snack, but the few cafés open were really busy.  What a wasted opportunity.  The large shops (Monop and C&A) were open during the morning – it was the small businesses who hadn’t been able, for whatever reason, to take advantage of thousands of people wandering around.

Hopefully they will be able to make the most of the ‘Dimanches de la Canebiere’ really quickly.

If you do go, don’t miss the rue du Theatre Francais where the local street artists have been give carte blanche to decorate shop shutters with portraits of local people, famous or otherwise.

Here is a programme for the day: http://www.citizenkid.com/sortie/dimanches-de-la-canebiere-a1055621