Monday, September 24, 2018

Yesterday I made a few calls to try and arrange a food tour, none of which panned out. But, one person texted me back and suggested a free walking tour with a friend of hers. Cool concept, meet at 10am, every Mon, Wed. Fri. Under the mirrored canopy near the metro stop, about 2 block from my apt. And pay what you want at the end of the tour. Good crowd showed up, the guide, Ezekiel, was an anthropologist who spoke good English and knew what he was doing. He moved it along well and covered a lot of ground. Today was a marked difference weather wise, as the Mistral was blowing. Very, very windy, and much cooler. I wore a jacket for the first time since Chamonix. The tour showed how a lot of downtown Marseille had been destroyed in WWII and the Germans had destroyed a whole neighborhood because the Corsican Mafia had defied them. They did preserve select buildings, oddly enough. Turns out that Marseille was designated the European Capitol city for a year in 2013, this mean that the EU poured money in to showcase it. Apparently a turning point. All the things you’ve heard about Marseille being rough, dirty and dangerous, at least in the Vieux port area, just aren’t true anymore. Sure, it’s France’s second largest city with a population of 850,000 in the city and 1.6million in the metropolitan area. It’s largely not on the tourist map, so don’t tell anyone that it’s a really cool place to visit, and do watch Anthony Bourdain’s episode on it. Paris is much more dangerous, dirty and smelly. But I digress, after the walking tour, I tackled a Bouillabaisse. Lots of little bony stuff, but tasty. I’m reminded of my father who used to order these Fruits de Mer platters full of shells and crabs, spend an hour picking out little bits of meat, and then pronounce himself still hungry at the end of the exercise. I felt a little the same after the bouillabaisse. Sotto Mare has nothing to worry about. After lunch, I tried to find the African Market area. Found a few things, but it really wasn’t up to the hype about it being like going to Africa. Just a few Africans stores, some produce etc. nothing to write home about. Took one of the Trams for a ride, had a coffee and rode back. Now back at the Caravelle bar trying a different Pastis.

This is the mirror Canopy at the Vieux Port Metro stop.These are from the Panier neighborhood, the oldest part of Marseille.