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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2010


PHOTOS BY PHILIPPE CONTI/PICTURETANK FOR THE WASHINGTON POST Marseille buffs its melting pot marseille from F1


largest city has undergone a dramatic makeover, accelerated by a high-speed train that now connects it to Paris in just over three hours. A bouillabaisse of European and North African im- migrants, Marseille has evolved into a town that is young and cosmopolitan while keeping its gritty charm. It may also be the closest thing France has to a melting pot: The media have noted that it was one of the few


French cities to avoid the wide- spread rioting that followed the accidental deaths in 2005 of two teenagers from immigrant fami- lies who were fleeing police in a Paris suburb. New hotels and luxury apart-


ments are sprouting along its waterfront; boutiques, restau- rants and artists’ studios have revived once seedy neighbor- hoods. You can sense the change in the millions of dollars of public works projects underway in preparation for 2013, when Marseille takes its turn as Eu-


rope’s Capital of Culture. And you can see it in the construction cranes at the Hotel-Dieu, the sprawling 18th-century land- mark hospital being converted into a luxury hotel. Yet despite the changes, Mar-


seille’s odd vibe remains. The local culture — which elevates soccer to a religion, drinking pastis (an anise-flavored li- queur) to a ritual, local food specialties such as bouillabaisse to an art form and the local French-mangling dialect to a language of its own — isn’t


showing any signs of waning.


A collection of villages I returned to Marseille some


weeks later to spend a day with a native, Rhone winemaker Jean- Marc Espinasse of Domaine Rouge-Bleu.We began under the shade of plane trees at a cafe in Le Panier, the city’s oldest neigh- borhood, on a small hill north of the old port. “Marseille is not somuch a city


as it is a collection of villages, each one very different,” Es- pinasse reflected. “Twenty years


ago, Le Panier was not an area youwouldwalk around in. Itwas like the Bronx.” Le Panier is a labyrinth of


narrow, winding streets that, with its ochre facades and peel- ing wood shutters, could easily be found in coastal Italy. In recent years, artists have moved into the neighborhood, which is also home to the city’s cathedral and the Vieille Charite, a 17th- century shelter for the poor that has been converted into a series


marseille continued on F5


“Twenty years ago, Le Panier was not an area you would walk around in.”


—Jean-Marc Espinasse, a winemaker in Provence


Top:Avisitor takes a photo insideNotre-Dame de la Garde, the richly decorated basilica whose mosaics received extensive renovations between 2001 and 2008. Clockwise from above left:Narrow, winding streets mark Le Panier, the city’s oldest neighborhood, now home to many artists. Schoolchildren visit a collection of Italian paintings at Vieille Charite, a 17th-century almshouse that has been converted into a series of museums.Afisherman arrives at the old port, where a fish market operates every day.


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