La fierté de Marseille

So I went to Marseille on Sunday. I actually went to the suburb Marseille, which technically isn't in the city of 800,000 - 900,000 people, but the surrounding area of 1,4 million-ish people. While in La Gavotte at my host father Philippe's uncle's house and touring a little bit of Marseille afterwards, I learned a few things about the city.

First of, as I actually already knew, Marseille (and La Gavotte itself) is famous for bringing the amazing retired and the young prodigy soccer players Zinedine Zidane and Samir Nasri, respectively. Marseille is a city that really lives soccer. There are sand lots all over the city where kids and adults play, or they'll just play in the street. Olympique Marseille soccer fans are some of the crazier ones you'll ever meet, and as is said in Marseille "There are 900,000 people that live here, and 900,000 coaches as well." And I have to add that their bitter rivals are Paris Saint-Germain, who are not good at all this season. That might be a result of Marseille being the old capital/port and the idealogical capital of the south of France, whereas Paris is that of the north (and all, technically).

To go along with the fact of Marseille being a sort of capital, I have to add in that it has a very long history. It has been a major trading port for quite some time, even before the setting of Le Comte de Monte Cristo with Gerard Depardieu. It also has quite a long history of being against the government. Throughout all the governments in the history of France, such as the Orléans and Bourbon monarchies, Marseille has often been where lots of trouble was stirred up.


There's Gerard Depardieu emerging from the sea in front of the supposed Chateua d'If, which was the island prison of the future Count of Monte Cristo.

And any true "Marseilleais" can tell you that and more about the history of their city, which goes along with the title of this blog: the pride of Marseille. Philippe's uncle, who has lived in Marseille for 42 years now after fleeing Algeria during the war in 1965, can tell you plenty about the buildings, the history, the next soccer game, etc. I also wanted to add in that Marseille has a very diverse community, as most large cities. There are thousands among thousands of Arabs living there who have moved from Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, among other places, and their culture has affected Marseille amazingly. The important thing to note here is that there aren't nearly as many racial problems between whites and Arabs in Marseille as in Paris. It might be the sea, it might be the soccer, or it might be Marseille's famous licorice-flavored pastis liquor that does it, but everyone is a lot more chill in Marseille and the south of France in general. So chill that traffic rules apply even less in Marseille than the rest of France. There was a guy stopped in front of a bakery in the only lane of a fairly busy road at 7:30 as we were leaving La Gavotte!