A trip to Marseille – and an incredible encounter!
It’s been six years now since we first spent August in Marseille, France’s second city.
I must confess, my first visit was not a happy one. It may be the south of France, but it's very different from the manicured Côte d'Azur.
It's noisy, gritty and fast-moving and the locals have a reputation for being unfriendly, although I've always found kindness beneath their gruff façades.
Since 2012 however, there have been huge improvements. In anticipation of Marseille being the City of Culture, the council undertook a massive clean-up and restoration project. It also built an impressive new museum of Mediterranean life. MUCEM, spectacular in design and quite beautiful to visit.
MUCEM and the Vieux Port
The changes don’t meet with everyone’s approval, but to occasional visitors like us, the changes have really made a difference. The boost in civic pride is palpable.
The Marseillais are fiercely, explosively proud; proud despite the incivility of the driving and parking, proud of the recent civic improvements that have rendered the Vieux Port worthy of visiting by the thousands of cruise ships that dock each year, proud of the magnificent calanques or fjord like fingers of white limestone cliffs and limpid turquoise bays that line the coast between the city and Cassis to the South.
Le Panier, the old quarter
Situate yourself in Marseille for a holiday, and if you have a car, all the riches of Provence await you, without the horrendous, soul-sapping traffic jams and bling of the Cote d’Azur.
Travel just 30 minutes out towards the suburbs, and step into a magical world of cigales, butterflies, soaring mountains, hundreds of different types of wild flowers, and gentle slopes covered with vines.
The calanque of Sugiton – never too crowded, it's 45 minutes on foot to reach here
Stay in town, and you’ve at least 10 beaches at your disposal, an elegant corniche flanked with bougainvillea clad villas, a world class arena and fabulous architecture. Le Corbusier built his prototype housing estate, Radiant City, here in 1930, and in the surrounding, genteel arrondissments, there are other fine examples of apartment buildings and family homes, inspired no doubt by his legacy.
This year’s trip was probably the best ever. Recent rains have rendered the statuesque mountains that encircle the city even more lovely, with their stark and craggy white cliffs and deep, verdant valleys teeming with life.
The green valleys and vineyard-clad slopes around Cassis
Nearly as green as Normandy, but with the sounds and smells of the Mediterranean
All that rain, however, has meant a bumper year for mosquitos, so I was relieved when we arrived back in Barfleur to finally be able to sleep with the windows open and breathe the cool, fresh sea air of the Cotentin.
During my absence, work has continued slowly inside Nettie, and there will be a short hiatus now pending the arrival of the new windows. Although my order was placed in July, the intervening French holidays have meant that delivery isn’t scheduled until late September.
Still, there are things to be getting on with, including repointing the top floor and making a start on the replastering of the sitting room, so I stopped by briefly on my return to organise tools and clean up ready to start work.
As I gazed out of the top window to admire the view of the harbour, I saw a couple peering into the courtyard – not unusual, as since her façade has been prettified, she attracts a lot of attention.
Still, I heard a tap on the door, so I headed down to see what was up. Maybe someone’s fed up with the pile of sand outside, or just curious to know more about the renovation. A young woman extended her hand and introduced herself as no other than Céline K. – the artist who had produced the graffiti that still adorns Nettie’s walls, and the granddaughter of the previous owners!
Céline K. – all grown up now!
Visiting Barfleur from Caen with her husband, she was keen to show him the port, the house in which she had spent many happy holidays, and the graffiti she'd scribbled as a young girl. How amazing that I happened to be there at that very moment.
I was so happy to show them around and talk about the improvements I’m making. I hope we’ll stay in touch, and that they will be one of the first guests to stay one day soon, making new memories of the house we both love so much.
