Marseille, an immigrant's tale

Marseille is an immigrant's city.

I'm not saying this because there are a lot of foreigners here. There are a lot of foreigners. There are a lot of Maghrebian people who cross the Mediterranean and don't go much farther than Marseille's Vieux Port. But there are also Germans, Spanish, Brazilians, Chinese, Italians- people who like me, were attracted to Marseille as if the Notre Dame de la Garde had a beacon attached to it with a sign saying: WELCOME, FOREIGNERS.

WELCOME, FOREIGNERS! Drop your luggage here!

However, there are also a lot of French immigrants here. In fact, almost everyone I've talked to in Marseille is an immigrant of some form. Rare is the one who has spent its entire life in Marseille. Everyone in my class at Aix-Marseille Univeristy, for example, came from a different region in France and for different reasons, ended up in Marseille.

But we all have something in common- we all want to get out.

Marseille is the passing-through city. No one really wanted to be here in the first place, and is just using the city as a means to accomplish something. It might be to finish one's studies at the university. It might be to find a job in one of the France's most diverse cities. It might be in pursuit of the sun or a love affair. I've seen everything in these two years that I've been living here, and one thing is for certain- Marseille is not dull.

But once the person's objective is accomplished, it's Au revoir, Marseille. This is not a city you dream of living in. And, because no one wants to keep living in Marseille, it continues to be treated the way it is- like the common room of your boarding school. It's fun to use it, but since it's not yours, you don't exactly keep it clean and decorate it with flowers.

That's not to say Marseille isn't beautiful. I mean, look at this:

Sugiton, Marseille.

And this:

Les Goudes, Marseille

Marseille is colorful, Marseille has nature, Marseille has spirit. Marseille has all that and the benefits of being a large city like Paris, except it's in the South, it has cleaner air and 300 days of sunshine per year. And it's just next to Provence so we get to have cheap lavender, soap, and olive oil.

If Julia Roberts said in Eat, Pray, and Love that all cities have a word, Marseille's is transit. And I couldn't think of a more lovelier, exciting city to be in during my transit time.