Come and discover the soul of Marseille with Elodie Marie, a live guide. We will cross Marseille, as one crosses a memory, going back in time between what was dreamed of by the powerful and what is experienced by its inhabitants today. Massalia the Greek, Massilia the Roman, which would become the fashionable Marseille under the old regime. A rebellious, impoverished, vibrant, multi-cultural, and colorful city.
Come explore La Canebière and Noailles, two complementary neighborhoods: one reflects the urbanized, ennobled city, a showcase of Europe from the 17th to the 19th century; the other reveals the intimate, working-class, lively city. My heart swings between the two.
Close your eyes and come walk along La Canebière, the Champs-Elysées of Marseille. Soak up the surroundings and imagine the ambition of the Empire: the Stock Exchange Palace, the horse-drawn carriages, the grand cafés, café-theaters, grand hotels, and cinemas: a grandiose atmosphere. Marseille will turn away from the sea to open up to the north, tracing the Canebière in 3 stages up to the Réformés. Mayor Flaissières said of it: "The street is not an ordinary street; and when one hears a puff from the East, when in the northern countries one speaks of Marseille, one speaks of La Canebière."
We will jump from one era to another: from flower sellers to department stores, from hypomobiles to electric trams, from the grand Cours Belsunce with its distinguished carriages to the La Bourdelle apartment blocks of the 1960s. Two thoroughfares for passing through and for looking, between shop windows and tumult.
Throughout the tour, Élodie leads the visit by revealing a portfolio of old postcards and Renaissance works depicting Marseille, to better understand the city's transformations through the ages. Then we rush into the "belly of Marseille", the multicolored Noailles district, which brings together an unclassifiable crowd. You are then taken on a journey for the senses: the smell of spices, colorful market stalls, the cries of merchants in all languages, a whole world teeming with life.
We will make an oriental food tasting stop at the stalls of Noailles.
Noailles is both a journey through space with its interculturality and a journey through time with centuries-old shops such as Maison Empereur, a former cutlery and hardware store, and the century-old herbalist Père Blaise. These two entities have never lost their identity, and their success has never waned. Noailles is, ultimately, a hub, the place of markets and small food shops, once an aristocratic neighborhood, then a place of exodus and popular renewal. Marseille is the only city where the poor neighborhoods have made their home right in the center.
Throughout this immersive experience, your live guide Elodie invites you to slow down, observe, and feel.
