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From the high vantage point of Our Lady of La Garde, you can see that the central station wasn't the only bad section of town -- most of Marseilles is the bad section of town. Big concrete buildings. Lots of immigrants arriving here, lots of men hanging out with nothing to do. Even so, it may be my naïveté, but -- once I got over the shock of arrival -- I still felt safer in those strange and poor neighborhoods than a bad section of many American cities. |
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| An artist's conception of Notre Dame de la Garde. From this rendering, it is clear how she towers above this Mediterranean city. |  |
| ...But this is what brought me to Marseilles. You see, somewhere back there in Utrecht, while I was sitting on the internet, figuring out what I really wanted to do this summer, I came across a notice for a Contact Improvisation dance class to be held way down in Marseilles. A good reason to see that part of the world -- and a good use for two more days' travel on my Eurail pass. This picture is from the one day that we left the studio and danced out on the grass, by the sea. The wind in our hair. The curious spectators. Class members from all over the world. Yes, life is good. |  |
| So each day I shuttled between my morning tourism and the afternoon classes. Here is the most impressive piece of architecture I came across: The Palais Longchamp. It now houses the Museum of Fine Arts (a mediocre collection -- I'm sure Napoleon took all the good stuff to the Louvre), and a museum of natural history. Behind this great facade is, innocently enough, a park -- actually a zoo, but the cages stand peacefully empty. |  |
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