Marseille

this is probably an exaggeration...

I was not in Marseille long, during this trip, I have been before during the Christmas season in 2002 when American sailors were in port for a week.
Still I wanted to include a few brief thoughts because of how interesting the city is.
(One of my best friend’s family is from Marseille so I visited her while she was staying with her family.) Most of the description here is of the main inner city area (from the train station to the main street and the harbor –approximately 1-2 square miles at most), the suburbs of Marseille seem to have a much different –more traditional southern French look.

Basically from the moment you get off the train or bus in Marseille you can tell the city is not “typical” France. The Muslim influence, Arab and North African is tremendous. Not so much in the actual look of the buildings which are all very western european looking. But in almost every other way. The parks are full of men talking and trading. Several of the main streets have people selling items on blankets and card board boxes. The language is written and spoken in Arabic, most of the people have darker skin, and dress like North Africans. The smell of the food and the people is different; the stores cater to Muslim diets.
There is a McDonalds, there are expensive restaurants and bars along the harbor, but the main areas of this part of the city are very non “French.” I think I described it to a friend as being a French city colonized by or given to North Africans.
It’s a really interesting and dynamic city. But there is a feeling of tension in the air sometimes… I stayed at a hotel on my first trip owned by Algerians, the hotel mainly served Muslim men who stayed for long periods of time. The day before the American soldiers were to leave, the hotel owner in excitement (not realizing or perhaps forgetting that I was American) said something like “Yes the Americans are leaving” then turned to me and “said your people, they leave tomorrow, we are excited” I asked him why they said they didn’t like the sailors ruining their town… I understood at the time, because that morning (Dec 26th) I had seen a drunken sailor stumble out of a public fountain where he seemed to have spent the previous evening… (the water doesn’t run in the winter).

Anyway Marseille is sort of interesting… it does also have a street of really high class western stores, trendy American type stores like Claire’s accessories, and the gap, but also high French and Italian fashion. This street is mainly frequented by white French women, tourists and teens of both sexes of all ethnicities.