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I had a French exchange when I was 13 years old. Philippe was a psychopath who lived on a farm outside Marseilles on France's south coast. His favourite pastime involved surprise-attacking frogs and hurling them into a nearby chicken run where certain doom awaited. My solitary escape from Philippe's farm was a day-trip to Marseilles itself. My childhood impression was that this was the biggest, grimiest, dirtiest, fishiest city in the whole wide world.
Fast forward a couple of decades and I'm back in Marseilles with my ever-loving wife. It's still a great big, dirty city but, this time around, I find this all exceedingly glamorous. Perhaps it's the yachts that seem to sail right into the city centre. Or maybe it's the massive Church of Notre Dame de la Garde overlooking the entirety. At any rate, I challenge anyone to take a spin down the main boulevard of La Canebière and not feel hopelessly epic. The streets are overrun with bright young things swigging mohitoss, chewing curry flavoured popcorn and ogling one another through tinted shades. Marseilles has had a long and arduous history, not least in the past sixty years. The Germans and Italians bombed the hell out of the city in the Second World War and the oil crisis of the 70s converted the place into a hardcore gangster's paradise, particularly for those of both Islamic and National Front persuasion. I was expecting Popeye Doyle to stumble around the corner with some hot dogs at any moment('The French Connection'). But things have been on the up these past 20 years with a boom in hi-tech industry and a resurgence in the shipping trade.
The history still shines through. Even the city's sewage system is a couple
of thousand years old. Marseilles started life as a safe haven for Greek
sailors before Julius Caesar conquered it for Rome. Never one to
accept central authority, Marseilles has a habit of siding with anyone that
likes to rebel. Hence, the city roared 'Viva La Revolution!' in 1792
and sent 500 volunteers to defend Paris. That's why France's national anthem
is La Marseillaise.
Hidden in the hills of Aubgane, 15 miles miles east of Marseilles, is Chateau
la Royante, a guesthouse run by Xénia and Bernard Saltiel.
(www.laroyante.com). This stunning 19th century manor house, where the Archbishop
of Marseille once lived, is completely off the beaten track. You're not
going to find bellboys in the lobby or showercaps in the bathroom. Nor will
you get away with simply exchanging curt nods with fellow guests; you'll
feel compelled to shake their hands and say something outrageous like 'Bonjour'.
There isn't even a bar to turn to either but never fear because Bernard
has a wine cellar that would make many a Roman Emperor splutter with envy.
Bernard was an engineer of some import in times past, charged with modernizing
the diamond mines of South Africa, USA, Congo, Morocco, Australia and so
forth. Indeed - and I whisper - he suspects there are still substantial
gold resources in the mountains of Ulster. So you might consider that as
you lie back by La Royante's pool and enjoy some good old-fashioned French
hospitality. This is the same sun-drenched, lavender-scented landscape that
inspired French novelist Marcel Pagnol to write such epics as 'Jean
de Florette' and 'My Mother's Castle'.
Aubagne is the HQ for the French Foreign Legion and is where all
wannabe Legionnaires come for three weeks of gruelling check ups, physical
training and aptitude tests, all conducted by the Legion's internal self-styled
Gestapo. A more digestible attraction is La Ferme Auberge, an astonishingly
good restaurant famed for its Provencal cuisine.
Another major highlight of this delightful area is the rampantly exotic
coastline running from Marseilles to Cassis and known as the Calanques.
Or the Klankys, if you're from Monaghan. These were the creation of a major
climate change some 12,000 years ago when the Mediterranean rose up and
gobbled a chunk of the south French coast. What was left behind is now mile
upon mile of thundering white cliffs rising with Gallic arrogance from the
frothy ocean, juxtaposed with hypnotic bays where mermaids live and juniper-scented
peaks that would falter a Sherpa's stride. Young lovers occasionally meet
amid the rocks to discuss the nesting habits of such rare and unusual birds
as the Bonelli eagle and the Peregrine Falcon. Goats also love it here because
of the Gouffé grass, considered the foiegras of grass by those
in the know. It exists nowhere else in the world. You'd have thought someone
might snaffle a few Gouffé seeds and bring them on down to those
poor billygoats in the south of Spain who've got nothing to munch on except
the occasional mouldy olive.
To view the Calanques, you need to go by boat. Fais attention parce que
if the sea is rough, you could be in for some serious decibellic challenges.
Our voyage looked like a 1970s disaster movie from the start. By the time
we were two miles into the outstandingly bouncy journey, the passengers
were screaming so loud the armies of the Middle East must have looked up
at the sky with a start. You'll find the boat in Cassis, a small coastal
port whose weather-beaten citizens have been making a few bucks drying cod
and quarrying limestone for the past few hundred years.
This article appeared in Abroad in May 2007.