I guess the pace we set yesterday was still carrying us on our second day in Marseille. We'd now gotten better personal maps in our heads for our neighborhood and Vieux Port. The areas next to them were gaining resolution. We still were slow to get out, but early enough today for coffee and croissants without hiking miles. We had goals today: the huge weekly street market not far away, lunch at a recommended Tunisian place, a visit to the museum of the old Roman port, and whatever else might come along. That turned out to be a walk beyond where we'd originally thought we'd turn around, followed by a further walk over the rest of that hill in the La Panier neighborhood that was worth the time, climb, and distance. This was also an old neighborhood, but one in the midst of being revitalized, which had the perfume of coming gentrification.
The market is simply the special day on which the streets are completely taken over by vendors in addition to the neighborhood's concentration of permanent bouchers, poissonniers, marchands de légumes, marchands d'olives, vendeurs de fruits, boulangeries et pâtisseries. I think I forgot fabricants de chandeliers. It's jamming. A big part of it is North African and Arabic, but right next to the halal butcher is a Muslim couple's shop—she in a hijab—and they're selling Hawaiian pizza with loads of pineapple and ham straight up against some interesting Tunisian versions that would rock Rome. There are also plenty of vendors of European nationalities, most certainly French, but this a place unto itself. Thousands of years of being a crossroads. All mixed together and seemingly doing well. But that was our experience already in walking the streets and asking directions.
Marseille is an unexpected treat even after we were expecting it to be a treat. Or at least a surprise. It seems that this side of the Mediterranean is now bookended for me—Barcelona and Marseille.
