THE LITTLE VENICES ❘ UNDISCOVERED FRANCE


ITALIAN CHURCHES Almost as old is the title ‘Venice of Provence’ given to the town of Martigues, in the Bouches-du- Rhône. “As early as 1934, the singer and actor Alibert sang about Martigues in the song Adieu Venise provençale, for which Vincent Scotto wrote the music,” explains Didier Cerboni, director of the town’s tourism office. “Actually, this merely confirmed an already established reputation for which there’s no lack of justification. Martigues is situated between the Mediterranean and the Étang de Berre and the Romans created a canal there. Until the 19th century, nine canals, used by fishermen, traversed Martigues. In addition, around 1860, the Orientalist painter Félix Ziem, who had painted seascapes and landscapes in Venice and Constantinople and remained nostalgic for these places, settled in Martigues and opened a studio. Other painters such as Dufy and Van Gogh followed him, all fascinated by its setting and colours. The association with Venice came naturally.” Today, with three canals, fishing boats anchored everywhere and the famous Miroir aux Oiseaux, an inlet spanned by the Sébastien bridge and reflecting façades of brightly coloured fisherman’s houses, it’s almost like being in the City of Water. Martigues, which can be visited by boat via its


canals, also has many tourist attractions, including the Ziem Museum and the Chapelle de l’Annonciade, a jewel of Provençal Baroque art. Staying in the south, it’s also due to old fishing traditions that L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue has long been known as the ‘Venice of the Comtat Venaissin’, after the territory once controlled by the popes in Avignon. It’s in fact an old fishing village built on stilts along the Sorgue, whose waters were once rich in trout, crayfish and eels. Today famous for its antiques market, the third largest European market after London and Paris, L’Isle-sur-la- Sorgue is traversed by canals, along which watermills once allowed the development of silk, wool and paper factories. A few waterwheels remain and the town’s layout is not unlike the City of the Doges: the collegiate church, Notre-Dame des Anges, with its Roman-style façade and rich 17th-century interior decoration, is also reminiscent of Italian churches. Its traditional fishing boats, long and thin (called nègo chin, which means ‘drowning dog’ in Provençal) are manoeuvred by boatmen standing at the rear, like gondoliers. Every year in July, illuminated floats festooned with flowers parade along the Sorgue’s canals at nightfall.


FLOATING GARDENS


In the Eure department, near Rouen and Honfleur, it’s once again a network of canals which allows the town of Pont-Audemer to claim the title ‘Little Norman Venice’. Situated between two branches of the Risle, the canals were used by fishermen


❯❯ Feb/Mar 2023 FRANCE TODAY ❘ 55


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