Monday, August 11, 2014

marsella

Spanish summer--hot, lazy, and blissfully relaxed. We didn't manage to find any work after the first week of June, so Levi and I have been bumming around, living off the savings and taking it very easy in our neighborhood. We allowed ourselves one luxury, a three-day trip to Marseilles, a gorgeous city on the Mediterranean coast of France.

A photo I took in 2010 of the city's central harbor
Levi participates in several online photography forums, and through one of them had connected with a French photographer from Marseille. A few months back, he and his wife came to Madrid for a long weekend, and we met up with them. They invited us to come visit, even offering a place to stay. I'd been through Marseilles for a couple of days on a backpacking trip when I first came to Europe in 2010, but Levi had never visited anywhere in that region. It's the most photogenic city I can imagine, a street photographer's dream. So we found a cheap flight and planned a trip for July.
The house across the way from ours, from the terrace

We arrive, assuming Mathieu and his wife Yolande would offer us a bedroom and some sightseeing advice. In fact, when he picks us up from the airport, Mathieu tells us that his neighbors were away on vacation and that we would be staying in their empty house. It's a two-story row house in a beautiful neighborhood outside of the city center. It was built by Napoloean's troops during his urbanization efforts in the previously rural area. There's a balcony and a jacuzzi tub and an espresso machine and a cuddly black cat. It's a far cushier vacation spot than we could have hoped for.

After a shower and some coffee, Mathieu, who is enjoying the unencumbered summer afforded to teachers, drives us on a tour of his Marseilles. He came here from Vietnam as a small child, and aside from some time in Paris, has lived in the city his whole life. His children, now grown up and moved out, were raised here. He knows the place better than any guide book that exists. He takes us outside of the touristy (albeit stunning) center an into the surprisingly old-fashioned fishing villages on the outskirts.

One of the swankier of the harbor villages; that restaurant in the background is said to be one of the best in the region
Marseilles in a collection of villages that have been gradually incorporated as the city grew, but have managed to maintain their unique identities and small-town feels. The ones on the coast are tiny clusters of tiny houses built around harbors crammed with fishing boats. Some are humble to the point of reminding me of Thailand with their corrugated metal roofs and clearly homemade boats, and some are plus little hideaways with mini pleasure cruisers and restaurants offering 70 bowls of bouillabaisse. Mathieu tells us that even the most modest of the houses in these villages would go for millions, were they ever to be sold, but the owners almost exclusively hand them down to family. It used to be that waterfront property was a simple fisherman's occupational necessity, but now it's a coveted spot for the glamorous, corrugated metal and all.

Mathieu and his wife invite us to their house that night for a little dinner party. I don't understand a word of French, but thankfully there are English and Spanish speakers in the group, and we have a lovely time. French rosé, champagne, eggplant souffle, stuffed tomatoes, fresh salad and cream pastries...Yolande is an incredible cook; I think I could probably live and die at this table.


Another shot from 2010, city center
The next day, Mathieu has photography plans for Levi. He's taking him to the development lab where he has his high-quality prints made for expos. Levi's thrilled but it's not likely to be entertaining to me, so Mathieu hands me off to Genevieve, an old friend of his we met at dinner the night before. She's a retired teacher and a huge Marseilles history buff. She leads me on a two hour walking tour around the city's central port, pointing out important buildings and recounting their histories.

She knows construction dates, architects, and anecdotes. She shows me the area where the Greeks built their agora when they settled here 2600 years ago, the Roman-constructed port, and the Napoleonic fortress. We stop for fresh-squeezed orange juice at a cafe in a modern-art structure overlooking the sea.

We meet up with Mathieu, Yolande, and Levi at a Vietnamese restaurant in the neighborhood, then get ice cream at a place that makes it by hand from fresh fruit. We end the day with dinner in Mathieu and Yolande's back yard.
Levi and I at the calanques in Cassis

On our final day, Mathieu brings us out to Cassis, a ritzy coastal town near Marseilles on the calanques, a series of rocky coves that offer gorgeous beach and boating space on the Mediterranean. The place is the archetypal Riviera town: touristy, overpriced, over crowded, but undeniably beautiful. We walk around for a couple hours and have a picnic in a park before heading back to Marseilles.

Levi in the ritzy tourist hub of Cassis (this one's mine, as evidenced by the questionable framing)
That night Mattieu brings us to his favorite pizza truck. Marseilles, with its large Italian immigrant population, claims to be the home of the world's first pizza trucks. The pizza in Spain can't be called anything better than edible, so when we caught whiff of the Napoli pizza trucks that dot the city, we decided we could have one non-French meal. We bring several and brought them back to the home of Mathieu and Yolande's daughter Emma and her boyfriend Xavier. We spend the evening eating far too much of this delicious pizza (tasted like home) and drinking wine.
Eating a slice while we wait for the whole pizzas..couldn't resist
It was a perfect getaway. It's a fantastic city and, more importantly, Mathieu and his family and friends showed us unsurpassable hospitality. Lovely weekend.


Photos, unless otherwise stated, are courtesy of my talented novio Levi Shand. See more of his work at levishand.com

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