Marseille in a Nutshell

We are only in Marseille for 3 days, but not surprisingly, there's a lot to say about it.

First, the spelling of the name. I always thought it was Marseilles. I've been calling it Marseilles for years! But even though Google will respond to that spelling, it turns out to be wrong. I think I got to adding the -s because of the Marseillaise (click on the title to hear the song). That song became the national anthem of France when volunteer soldiers from Marseille sang it as they entered Paris in 1792, during the Revolution. It's definitely a bloody song, but very thrilling.

And a little surprising, too. Marseille refused to come under the rule of Paris for hundreds of years, and here it is providing the national anthem? Wonders never cease.

I found a map of Marseille in Wikipedia, dated 1575, when it was so small it could be surrounded by a single wall, and only existed on the west side of the inlet now called the Vieux Port. It was "-s free" even then.

Marseille in 1575, from Wikipedia

It was about a hundred years after this map that Marseille was finally forced into France for good. After many years of independence, followed by uprisings, squashings by various would-be rulers, followed by more uprisings, Louis XIV at the head of his army had a go at it, and that was that. He built two forts, Saint-Jean and Saint-Nicholas, one on either side of the entrance to the Vieux Port waterway. The cannons pointed in toward the city - making plain who was the enemy. These forts are still there and are in use. Not as forts, of course.

Today's Vieux Port, Marseille, from the inland end.

The Fort Saint-Jean is the location of MUCEM, the Museum of European and Mediterranean Culture. It was my first tourist activity here (Julianne took a train tour of the city instead). The museum is tucked into the fort in an odd way, and also uses a couple other buildings, an old port building called J4, and a new building called Villa Mediterranee. They comport oddly, but entertainingly.

Entry to MUCEM through Fort Saint-Jean

Fort Saint-Jean is behind me. Far left, out of view, an overhead walkway to J4, which is clad in a lacy metal veil.
Near left, the Villa Mediterranee, with ships behind it. Center in the background, Cathedral la Major.
Foreground, part of Fort Saint-Jean landscaped for a park.
Right, some building perhaps from the 1960s?

A few details from the various buildings of MUCEM:

Dead end.

Outdoor sculpture, detail

Metal trellis within Fort Saint-Jean

Rooftop deck of J4

Below, how the building sits into its setting. I'm on land. The point of building on the left is the park visible in the panorama above. The walkway goes between the fort and J4 with its metal veil as above. The Villa Mediterranee is out of sight to the right.

There is basically no art collection to be seen in MUCEM. The buildings are the exhibit, I think.

They did have a video, though, and it was wonderful. The history of the Mediterranean Basin in 4 films over 45 minutes, from geological beginnings up to the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WWI. Really worth seeing, and a lot about the Ottomans in the Mediterranean, including the actions of sultans whose period we are reading about in some mystery novels. How interesting that reference point made the film!

We have a perfectly grand place to stay in. This is because our dear friends Raleigh and Scott were supposed to join us here, but sickness kept them away. The place is great, but we miss them.

French Provincial chairs, ice cream colors

Orchid, print of George Grosz drawings
We were surprised to see him here!
I've always thought of him as Mr. Anti.
There were good reasons at the time.

The dining room. Such consistency in
color palette.

We've done some things besides MUCEM. Took a tram out to the end of its line, through what had been the medieval part of town, which was flattened by the Nazis trying to dislodge the Resistance. Now the buildings are very new and some are nifty. Walked from our apartment on rue Dieude over to the Vieux Port; went to a grocery; strolled our neighborhood. Some pictures:

Square near Tourist Info, Chamber of Commerce in background

Carrousel horse

Not a carrousel horse

Pierre Puget, painter, sculptor, architect
1620-1694
Not the one who named Puget Sound

Above our street.
This picture and the next by Julianne.

After the protest march, rue de Rome near our place

These are anti-austerity protesters.
Austerity is a major source of unhappiness now.

Also protesters, near City Hall.
The paper reported 7,000 marchers, but we didn't see most of them

Cardboard mountain for kids to play with

Notre Dame de la Garde, from the Vieux Port
Picture by Julianne

Our other adventures include supper at the neighborhood gourmet restaurant, truly just around the corner - Julianne is doing a separate posting on it. And a boat trip out to some islands, the Archipel du Frioul. More on that to come. And then we'll be gone, on to Paris.

by Nancy, with 3 pictures by Julianne