Marseille photo essay

There´s a lot to be said about Marseille: it is pushy, fast, gritty, part dodgy, and part glamourous. It is also gorgeous especially when the sun sets like a saffron ball painting the bay in different shades of liquid ochre; when a huge yellow moon rises from the sea; and on sunny days, when the blue of the Mediterranean merges with the cloudless sky. It is a city teeming with people who speak different tongues; wear different clothes, and eat different food. Some have oodles of money and panache and dine out at fancy restaurants in lemon groves: while most live cheek-by-jowl and break their Ramadan fast at grubby pice restaurants that dish out large portions of couscous and stew for a few Euros. Street art enlivens the walls of Marseille and long fingers of sunlight filter in through the Arabesque trellis in the Museum thus creating a surreal lace of shadows. It is a city that adores children and where you can get mugged as a tourist in many places after dark. We spent a week in Marseille this spring and loved every moment. Although the weather often played truant, we had a few sunny days and the city was lovely. We explored nearly every corner of the city, even ventured to Aix-en-Provence, shopped, and ate. Here is a photo essay of Marseille. I promise it will make you want to pack your bags and leave.