Monday April 4, was a mainly sunny day with a high of 16C. We started our day by checking out the fish vendors at the port. We saw only two vendors, and one had only eels! The other vendor was very busy. She was taking orders and her helper was cleaning the fish. As they didn't seem to be doing any filleting, we took a pass on having fish for dinner.
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| Very fresh fish |
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| Crowd at the stall-- cleaning done at the metal table |
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No hands on that clock- only two teddies waiting for their food
We stopped at La Boulangerie Aixoise for some of the special Marseillais cookies.
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Outside of the bakery
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| Cookies at the bottom of the picture- they are very good |
We walked up a long street and decided to have a quick bite to eat at the lovely Minoofi bakery.
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| Outside the bakery |
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| Inside--- we shared a flavourful egg sandwich and had two macchiatos |
We passed a very nice park with a statue of Edmond Rostand (b. 1868 Marseille- 1918 Paris). He was a French poet and dramatist whose best known work is Cyrano de Bergerac.
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| Edmond Rostand statue very near the street named after him |
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| Three cafés had chairs in the park |
Our main destination for the day was La Cité Radieuse (Radiant City) designed by Swiss architect, Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (known as Le Corbusier) with the collaboration of painter-architect Nadir Afonso. We walked to the area around the Castellane Metro and took a bus to La Cité Radieuse (about a 15 minute ride).
The Unité d'habitation (Housing Unit) resembles an urban liner anchored in a park. It was built between 1947 and 1952. It formed the basis of several housing developments throughout Europe designed by Le Corbusier and sharing the same name (Unité d'habitation). Unlike many of the blocks it inspired, which lack the original's generous proportions, communal facilities and parkland setting, the Unité is popular with its residents and is now mainly occupied by professionals.
The apartments have built-in furniture and specially designed storage walls with cupboards with sliding doors, which were designed by Charlotte Perriand (one of my favourite French architects). She also collaborated on the design of the apartment kitchens.
The building has 337 apartments with 23 different layouts, a hotel with 21 rooms and a bar/restaurant. It is 12 stories high. It was named a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2016.
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Approaching the apartment building/hotel --- the panels of bright primary colours enliven the grey exterior. When Le Corbusier designed the building Brutalism was still futuristic architecture.
The building proved enormously influential and is often cited as the initial inspiration for the Brutalist architectural style and philosophy. |
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| Another view |
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| Drawings on the middle large pillar |
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| Close up of the colours and the windows |
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| Plaques honouring the building |
It turned out that only the third and fourth floors and the roof top are open to the public. The unique concept of the building included a bookshop, a bar and restaurant, a hotel and a design concept store.
Unfortunately with the exception of the 21 rooms of the hotel portion, located on the third and fourth floors, and the bar/restuarant in the hotel portion, a number of small commercial shops/galleries on the fourth floor were closed either permanently or on Mondays (a COVID effect?). We did see a number of students in the elevator and on the rooftop with drawing materials.
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Bar/ resto on the third and fourth floors - third floor picture
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| Looking in on the fourth floor part of the resto |
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| The surrounding park and green space is lovely |
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| View of the side of the building, near where we were sitting |
We took the Bus back to the Castellane Metro stop and then walked back to the apartment taking different streets than we took on the way out.
We stopped at Bernie coffee in a nice square and Alain had a coffee.
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| Bernie coffee & kitchen |
We wandered back to the apartment, stopping at the neighbourhood butcher to get some veal for dinner.
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Fountain just before our apartment building on the left -
two minutes from the water (to the right of the photo) |
Alain made a veal dinner, with potatoes, green beans and a salad. We are finding our apartment is very quiet as we are on a pedestrian street and due to the cool weather, not many people are eating out at night.
We highly recommend Marseille for a visit. We spent three nights here in 2013 and three nights here this visit. There is a lot to see and do in this very vibrant city. We have figured out that the theme of this trip is architecture. From the sublime to the Brutal, all very interesting. Regional food would be the second theme as we have had many local specialities in our travels so far.
Tomorrow we take the 12:02 fast train to Paris, hopefully arriving on time at Gare de Lyon at 3:24 p.m. The next blog entry will be posted either tomorrow or on Wednesday April 6.
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