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oes anything fray Marseille tempers quicker than the mention of bouillabaisse? Except for the exploits of Olympique de Marseille football club, nothing


gets locals squabbling more than the correct ingredients, preparation and consumption of this famous fish soup. Essentially it’s a seafood stew with


onions, white wine, tomatoes, fennel, garlic mayonnaise and croutons. First you boil it (bouillir) rapidly and furiously, then you lower (abaisser) the heat for the remainder of the cooking process. Some chefs include potatoes, while


others see this as crass as ordering your steak well done. Some add lobster, mussels and langoustine, but others would douse you in boiling oil just for suggesting such a thing. As American food writer Waverley Root said in his book Te Food of France: “A man who would put lobsters in bouillabaisse would poison wells. A man who would leave it out would starve his children.” Waiters bicker endlessly over


whether bouillabaisse should be served as two courses, with the soup first, or all together with the soup


poured regularly on top of the fish to keep it hot. Each restaurant in France’s second city swears blind that their version of this seafood soup is the only authentic one. Like bouillabaisse, Marseille itself


is a distinct mix of ingredients. Ever since Ancient Greek times, this Mediterranean port city has welcomed a hotch-potch of races, religions, cultures and trades. Today it’s arguably France’s most cosmopolitan city. Walk down the street and you’ll see all manner of ethnicities and nationalities rubbing shoulders. In the bustling streets you’ll hear Arabic and Italian spoken just as much as French. Ethnic white French are a minority here. As Emmanuel Macron said while campaigning here for his the presidency: “I see Armenians, Italians, Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians, Malians, Senegalese. But what do I see? I see citizens of Marseille, I see citizens of France.”


Tat was a future president wooing


In the bustling streets you’ll hear Arabic and Italian spoken just as much as French


votes, however. Not all citizens of the republic share his optimism for Marseille’s cultural mix. Tere was a time when French people would recoil in horror if you told them you were planning a visit here. Such was the city’s reputation for crime and racial tension, they’d assume you were mad even just to set foot in the place. Much of this


infamy was down to the notorious French Connection (the Corsican-run heroin scene in the 1960s), and the eponymous


Hollywood movie based on it. “Skag city” is how the hero of that film (Gene


Hackman’s Popeye Doyle) describes Marseille. Other


crime-orientated films and


TV series set here, such as Taxi, Te Bourne Identity, Te Transporter and Marseille, have reinforced the city’s bad reputation. Te latter starred Gérard Depardieu as a corrupt, cocaine-addicted


→


TOP: The French Connection epitomises Marseille’s gritty


reputation LEFT AND RIGHT: The thriving Euroméditerranée business quarter


NOVEMB ER 2018 busine s s tr a v eller .com


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