France’s third largest city displays an attractive nonchalance. A fantasy for people from the north, loved by some, hated by others, Marseille has seen its southern attributes increase over the course of the last seven years. A southern truth?
The World Cup Soccer Tournament in 1998 and the arrival of the TGV rail service have had a lot to do with it. By turning the cameras on Marseille, they have given the city back its identity, which, until then, had been rather variable. Of course, the vox populi has always enjoyed ridiculing its symbols: the Vieux Port and its fishermen, the mythical aura of the Canebière (main shopping street), the Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde Basilica: protector of souls and Olympique Marseille, its inflamed supporters and Florentine intrigues. And to these clichés others added an incredible natural heritage: the Iles du Frioul, the seaside charms of the Mediterranean and the Calanques, a fragile setting and vast tourist playground just outside the city.
But a new city is being born. A daring, ambitious project that is giving the Phocean city a new credibility. The ‘Euroméditerranée’ site is underway, a gigantic housing development project at the heart of Marseille’s old town,. Work on the tramway has turned the city upside down.
All around the town artistic creation is developing: theatre, dance, painting, sculpture, music - sometimes in partnership with the opposite shore, in North Africa.
Jean-Claude Izzo’s novels and certain films have helped to popularise the town, with the result that thousands of cruise passengers now dock in Marseille, weekend TGVs are always full, the hotels are full in high season....and property prices soar. Raimu must be turning in his grave (Raimu was the actor in the famous Pagnol films set in Marseille).
