Sunday April 3 was a beautiful, sunny day. Much less wind than yesterday and even though the high was only 12C, it felt a lot warmer in the late afternoon.
We first had a visit with my cousin Anna, who teaches art history at the art college in Marseille. She is one of the two daughters of my cousins Karen and Daniel, whom we just visited in Sète. Anna has a son, Luc who will soon be three. We had not met him before today. We went for tea in the late morning. Anna has a wonderful bright flat on the 6th floor of a building with a very old, lovely, small lift. Her place was about 20 minutes away from where we are staying.
 |
| View from the apartment on a hill- water in the distance |
 |
| Luc with our gift of a chocolate rabbit |
 |
| Anna and Luc |
 |
| He definitely knew how to pose for the camera-- very energetic and fun kid |
After our visit, we headed back to the port. We had noticed a shop Four des Navettes, in business since 1781. It was a bakery specializing in biscuits called navettes which were created in 1781 by Monsieur Aveyrous. A Marseille specialty.
 |
| Outside of the bakery |
 |
| Inside the bakery--- lots of navettes in packages |
 |
Great old bakery - A round oven has been used since 1781 and the recipe for the cookies
has been a well kept secret for more that 200 years.
|
There are lots of stairs in Marseille between streets-- reminds me a bit of San Francisco which is also very hilly.
 |
| Heading down some stairs to the water |
 |
| The Vieux Port really is wonderful |
 |
| Boats and water and sun |
We checked out the Tourism Office just a few streets from the Port. There was a merry-go-round in the nearby square.
We continued to our next destination, Mucem- the Museum of Civilizations of Europe. Mucem is a national museum which was inaugurated on June 7, 2013 as part of Marseille-Provence 2013, a year when Marseille was designated as the European Capital of Culture.
It is located on the northern side of the Port, not too far from where we had dinner last night. We walked on the waters edge, passing a lot of restaurants where people were enjoying their Sunday lunch (a real tradition in France) and soaking in the sun.
 |
| Many people out in the sun |
 |
| Getting some rays |
 |
| Definitely a lot of seafood lunches happening in the Vieux Port |
 |
| The Art Gallery we had walked by last night |
 |
Intercontinental Hotel in the Panier district
|
We then passed a plaque with some information that we had not known about Marseille. In 1943, the north shore district (part of Le Panier) was blown up by dynamite on the orders of Heinrich Himmler. 20,000 people were evacuated and about 2000 apartments were destroyed in a 14 hectare area. Many Jews and poor people from the area were deported at this time. Only a few buildings were spared. The area was rebuilt after the war. We found out more about this horror later in the day.
 |
| Story of the destruction |
 |
| Another view of the Basilica |
Very near to the entrance to Mucem was the Mémorial des déportations, dedicated to the repression and persecution of Jews, resisters and others in Marseille during the Second World War. The original "Death Camp Memorial" opened its doors in 1995. A new focus on deportations lead to its new name, the "Deportation Memorial" and a new permanent exhibit opened in December 2019.
Outside of the Mémorial
 |
Fascinating story of the building-- bunker built at end of 1943 designed to be an underground infirmary for the Nazi navy.
|
 |
Marseille was originally a place many refugees fled to, but an agreement between Vichy and the Nazis lead to the arrests of foreign born Jews and then in January 1943, there was large roundup which resulted in the deportation of hundreds of Jews.
There was an excellent 12 minute documentary about the little known history of the 1943 round-up and the evacuation and destruction of the northern Old Port district. The Nazis wanted to destroy the northern district as it was considered by the Germans to be a "terrorist nest" because of its small and windy streets.
There was an incredible photograph of the Nazis and the French police negotiating the deal. In exchange for the Nazis destroying a slightly smaller area of the Old Port district, the French said they would extend the round-up of Jews and others to other parts of Marseille. It was a vicious round up undertaken by the French police. Very few returned.
|
 |
The Nazis and French collaborators in Marseille (Man with fur collar was the director of the French police, René Bousquet).
|
 |
| Scene of the destruction of the Old Port district--- very few buildings were saved |
|
The toll: In January and February 1943: Close to 2000 people from Marseille were deported, half of whom were Jewish; 20,000 were evacuated from the Vieux-Port; there were 40,000 identify checks; 1494 buildings were destroyed on 14 hectares of ruins.
The Deportation Memorial also had a number of testimonies and stories about Marseilles deportees, including some who survived and others who did not. The stories were in both French and English and provided a lot of detail about the individuals who were deported. |
 |
| Very effective presentation of the deportees history and what happened to them |
There is also a wall of names with the names of deportees and their age at the time of their deportation. It's a computer display where the names are listed and then disappear letter by letter and then the list starts again.
 |
The list of names of those deported from Marseille
The Mémorial and the new permanent exhibit are well worth visiting. The history of the round-ups and the deliberate destruction of 14 hectares of the Old Port district was a piece of forgotten history that was fascinating.
We then went to Mucem. The modern part of Mucem is a building designed by Rudy Ricciotti (b. 1952 Algeria), a French architect of Italian origin. It is a cube with concrete lacework forming a perfect square with sides of 72 metres. It is linked to Fort Saint-Jean by a footbridge suspended above the Mediterranean. Fort Saint-Jean was built in 1660 under the reign of Louis XIV. It served a strictly military function until the French Revolution, when it became a state prison. In 2013, Fort Saint-Jean became part of Mucem. |
 |
Entering Mucem -- Fort Saint-Jean section
|
 |
View from Mucem looking away from the Port-- the Cathédrale de la Major-
19th century Byzantine-Roman style |
 |
| On the footbridge leading to the Ricciotti cube |
 |
The other side of the cube
|
 |
| Terrace near entrance to the exhibits in the cube section |
The buildings are themselves worth a visit. We went to see the main exhibit entitled: VIH/sida L'épidémie nest pas finie! (HIV/AIDS, the epidemic is not over!). The exhibit traces the social and political history of AIDS. It also showcased Mucem's extensive collection on the theme of HIV/AIDS built up at the beginning of the 2000s. It was a topical exhibit as it dealt with issues of social responses to epidemics and the management of health crisis. Definitely raises issues in regard to the responses to COVID-19 and the uneven access to drugs/vaccines.
 |
Poster for the exhibit
|
 |
Intro to the exhibit
|
 |
The situation today
 |
Jean-Baptiste Carhaix (b. Golfe-Juan, 1946),
AIDS is not a gay disease, 1983
 |
| Allan Tannenbaum (b. Passaic, New Jersey, 1945), Demonstration in Support of AIDS Victims, 1983 |
 |
| Barbara Alper, (b. U.S.A. 1949) AIDS: We need research Not Hysteria, June 1983 |
 |
| T-shirts with AIDS slogans |
 |
| 1995 Hommage to persons who have died of AIDS |
 |
AIDS- the Struggle Continues
|
|
| Story of Canadian Gaëtan Dugas, a Quebecois flight attendant who had been labelled as Patient Zero, a hypothesis that was not correct. There was a recent documentary about him called Killing Patient Zero. His case had been code-named Patient O, meaning out of State. This was misinterpreted as "Patient Zero". Later scientific blood work showed that he did not bring HIV to the US. Dugas died of AIDS in 1984. |
 |
| Lots of banners in the exhibit |
 |
Chéri Samba (b. Democratic Republic of Congo, 1956),
Marche de soutien la campaign sur la sida, 1988 |
The exhibit was very comprehensive and there was an incredible number of artefacts. There were lots of people in Mucem today, as it is free the first Sunday of each month. We didn't realise this until we got there. After our visit, we headed back to the Old Port.
 |
| Sailboats in the harbour |
 |
| Looking at Fort Saint-Jean |
 |
| View of the Vieux Port from Mucem |
We walked back along the water to the area near our apartment.
 |
| Plaque noting that the Greeks founded Marseille in 600 BC |
 |
Lots of people taking pictures under the Norman Foster canopy
|
We went for a late afternoon coffee at Deep, a coffee roaster close to our apartment. The roaster is from Quebec and the coffee was very good.
 |
Outside of Deep
|
 |
| Alain with his macchiato |
We returned to the apartment for a late dinner. Alain prepared chicken, green beans, and a large salad for dinner. We also had some cookies we had purchased this morning for dessert. Marseille is a fascinating city and we are very glad we are staying near the Vieux Port.
Comments
Post a Comment