Morning tour of Aix, with chef in Aix then Afternoon in Marseilles
The walk around Aix was OK.
The three things that stick in my mind were:
A beautiful old square that I swear I have seen on a. couple of album covers, and in a couple of movies.
A memorial plaque relating to the Second World War.
A plaque to commemorate the fact that Aix was the birth place of composer Darius Milhaud. The name may not mean much to you, perhaps you will know the name the of one of students better, Dave Brubeck, the man who wrote and recorded the song "Take Five."
Lunch was a speciality of the region, a seared then roasted chicken, with polenta, followed by a lavender flavoured dessert, nicely washed down with a local rose.wine. Chef cooked it in front of us, then we sat down to eat it, all very S.B.S. Foodie.
MARSEILLE
Before I start a bit of trivia. The French National Anthem "La Marsailles." Was named after a group of men and women who marched from this place (a very long march) to Paris to join the revolution. As they marched they sang the song to keep their spirits up. When they eventually reached Paris, they were so happy the march was over, they really belted it out! It caught on and hence the anthem, but to the time we inMarseilles
The last time I was in Marseilles in the late 1960's it was not a nice or happy place. It was a dirty, dingy, criminal, tough, military harbour town. It had an Arab quarter, that no European entered - except the police who raided the area, because they believed it was a recruiting ground for the two for the two "terrorist" groups who were waging a revolution in Algeria. A bit like radicalisation swops now.
Going out from the harbour were members of the Foreign Legion (in combat clothes), conscripts who had just finished their basic training in the mountains just behind the town, and French Paratroops. French Paras had a reputation for being particularly brutal and vicious in their methods. Justifiably so. Just to see these men in the street was terrifying. Hard, mean, unsmiling with not an ounce of fat on them.
Coming into Marseilles were the refugees and immigrants from the French colonies all over the world, colonies which the French seemed to be losing at a very rapid rate. These migrants would go off to the various slums and shanty towns around the big cities of France. Many went to nearby Toulouse to live in the shanty town there (conditions about the same as a very bad refugee camp) and work In the car factory at slave labour rates. But thankfully things change.
The town now has been cleaned up, modernised, and doesn't look too bad. The guide told me that just a little bit of the notorious Arab quarter still does exist, but the people who used to live there, were rehoused in modern "housing commission" flats that we saw in the Northern suburbs of the town. The boot camp in the mountains is still there, but I did not see any military in the street. Marseilles still has its moments. It had a big National Front (a far right party) vote in the last election, even though a more moderate party were voted in. But overall Marseilles seems to have cleaned itself up (in every sense of the word) in the intervening years. Let's finish this entry on a lighter note.
Below is a photo of the famous island prison "Chateau d'if" which you read about in the story, "The Count of Monte Cristo." So even though the prison certainly existed, the Count didn't even though the guides will tell you otherwise. Anyway, when I was a child I used to watch The Count story on T.V. Somehow I found or that Chateau meant castle and d'if meant of. So therefore the name was "If Castle." ..... Who would call a castle If!!!!????. I asked the guide if she knew what the word was in English. She paused, thought a moment, and shrugged.
"Perhaps it is from an old Provençal word. Because I was born and raised in Marseilles, and it has always been d'if, I have never thought about it! "
So there you go trivia buffs one to win a game on!
P.S. Julie has just reminded me of my lost in translation incident.
I was in a department store and I politely asked the shop assistant where the electrical department was. She glared at me and shrieked,
"Out ...... ....Fnac" Pointing to the exit, and repeating "out. FNAC"
How rude I thought, it was a perfectly reasonable request
Apparently, FNAC is the name of an electronics store!
No comments:
Post a Comment