This is the entrance to Le Corbu, the “radiant city”, revolutionary workers’ housing of the fifties…rejected however by the workmen who were repairing the bomb damage to the city during world war II..it’s now middle-class apartments….. I find the rough cast pilotes look like rough cast elephant legs and very beautiful. Inside it is rich panelling, coloured glass, also very beautiful….
I’ve ridden out to this posh quarter, the Prado, by bus, one of those cruelty buses now seen in every city….you know the ones with seats for the infirm upfront, a large space for prams and walkers, then elevated seats for trapeze artists or young people. I see an elderly person hoisting himself painfully up a couple of feet to a seat. Takes 30 mins to get to Le Corbu along a long treelined boulevard. Stops right outside what looks like any old public housing project..great parking lot lights though…
…..There’s a resto on the seventh floor, major mission fresh’n'local and an hotel, starting rooms i see at 69 EURO…
I started the day on Canabiere, the main drag which runs north from the harbour. Hemp Street is the translation. I found what I was sure would be a WIFI hotstop at University Paul Cezanne. Boy did I get a cold shoulder. WIFI is technology non grata in this town….REbuffed I am consoled by the plaque on a shabby building – Richard Wagner stayed here.. 
Destination is Mina Kouk, a newish Algerian place in Cour Julien, the city’s Bohemian quarter, sometimes nicknamed Cour Juliette. As I stand studying a large map outside the Metro Station, a friendly soul warns me that it’s dangerous here! I can’t believe it, and later I learn that is simply not true. But Marseille is paranoid about its past as a sink of iniquity. Don’t mention the French Connection if you want to make friends. …….as I turn into rue Fontange, lined with amusing little shops, my eye is caught by a big platter in the window of a secondhand shop.
……the design is surely the inspiration for Villeroy & Boch’s old rose pattern, now delisted. An old friend once had the breakfast service, now broken. This must be the present for her….I decide to have lunch first…
Mina Kouk is bright, tiny and I eat the best meal I’ve had since dinner at Les Trois Forts..
….Fresh, spicy Algerian food, a plate of hors d’oeuvres with carrots sliced with cumin and olive oil, mashed eggplant, the eggplant baked in oven with garlic, olive oil and salt and vinegar
…..she says she uses about 15-20 spices…
A flaky pastille encloses chicken, onion, prunes, scrambled egg, apricot….
a
Tour de force is the hand rolled couscous with spicy merguez and lamb..
Mina Kouk 
has family in MOntreal. Is thinking of emigrating. Her brother in law says, no go to Toronto!
After lunch I return to the second hand shop and Alys, the owner, removes the platter from the window, dusts it off, turn it over and says with satisfaction, it’s handmade by Gien, the greatest name in French faience.
Now I have to get it home. The bag drags dangerously on the ground. I have to tuck it under my arm as I browse the shops.
I go up Rue Fontange and find cheese shop with more cheese than I’ve ever seen…
Take my iPad to have cafe, Le Pontu, named after the little wooden boats that ply the harbour….
Le Pontu behind the Rive Gauche iisn’t a hot spot, it’s a great place to jot down notes on my IPAD while out of the corner of my eye, I watch Marseilles go by….Interesting, the local people seem very middle class, a couple of office workers splitting a bottle of wine, a little boy sitting politely while his father unburdens himself to a friend..
…
two little girls hurtle down the street on their bikes, then drop them in the middle of the road to examine this monster…
