Bet on Marseille here

Marseille is France’s second city and as rugged, unpredictable, sultry, sexy, colourful and musical as you like, the locals swelled by the yacht-mobile of nearby St Tropez, rich slummers from Monaco and the good bourgeoisie from Aix. It doesn’t bustle, it bristles.  It is also one of the oldest cities in Europe, founded by the Greeks in 600BC. Some people just see the crime as in the French Connection. We like the food, the sun, the music…and the football team

 

Don’t  

• Mess with the police. They have big truncheons and they use them
• Don’t be fooled by Geant Casino…it’s a hypermarket
• Don’t go to the cathedral Notre Dame de la Garde unless you are very fit. It’s a big climb. The locals call it La Bonne Mere but once you get to the top you have a wonderful view of the city, of the sea and of islands like the archipelagos of le Frioul where the If Castle is located from where the Count of Monte Cristo escaped. Also if you are of the site seeing persusion the locals admire the Basilic of Sainte-Marie-Majeure.
• Eat too much garlic…impossible really, but just eat some coffee grains, say the locals
• Be careful in the north of the city, especially Quartiers Nord

 

Do 

 

• Have a coffee on the Cannebiere, surrounding the Vieux Port where most of the action is
• Bouillabaise…many claim to make this fish soup but only in Marseille will you find the mythical mix of correct fish which should be rascasse, the local rock fish, red and white, and not found elsewhere, conger, spider crab, scorpion, mullet, usually in smarter places served as two course, fish and soup, with the mandatory garlic rouille, croutons etc. Excellent cure for sunburn. Most of the restaurants around the harbour have a version.
• Pistou..is another local fish soup, this one made with salt cod, vegetables and served with garlic mayonnaise
• France’s newest three star Michelin under Marseilles own Gerald Passedat has all the trimmings and rooms at a price…at Anse de Maldormé - Corniche J.F. Kennedy - 13007 Marseille
• Tel. : +33 (0)4 91 592 592 www.passedat.fr
• The markets around Le Panier the oldest district in Marseille is packed with animated huddles, bric a brac and suitcase fillers. Also the Marche du Soleil by the Porte d’Aix.
• Drink Pastis…with water.
• Check out the petanque which is usually in season on the Cours Julien
• After the match have a pizze – the Marseillaise do not pronounce the final a - you can have almost whatever you want on it and amazingly different recipes are available. Eat your heart out Pizza Express.
• Catch the music scene…this is hip hop city, plus also a historic gateway to those African rythmns for blues and jazz  at places like www.letrolleybus.com
• Sightseeing with a difference… Between Marseille and Cassis lie the dramatic rocky calanques. Most can be reached only by foot or boat from the Vieux Port and Cassis or Sormiou and Morgiou can be reached by footpaths from town. Signposted from Luminy near the university.

 

Sorry darling, I have just blown all the holiday money on a football match…  the soap of Marseilles is renowned… so is the virgin olive oil…and 1,000 different floral scents of honey… les croquants de Marseille are made with almonds or les Marseillote  are a confectionery made of honey, almonds, chocolate, oranges and anis

Stade Velodrome, Marseilles.

APART  from being the only team to field two players whose names start with a Z – Bolo Zenden and Algerian player of the year Karim Ziani, not to mention Zinedine Zidane who was born here,  Marseille attract 60,000 supporters each week who valiantly  tried to have a whip round to buy Didier Drogba back from Chelsea. A goal out of the blue is still called a Drogba in the local patois. And it is good place to get a bowl of bouillabaise.

Lyon have eclipsed Marseille in recent years in the Ligue 1 but in Europe Marseille have the edge. They won in 1993 against AC Milan thanks to a headed goal from Basile Boli and they are serial last stagers. In 1999, they reached the final of the UEFA cup with Robert Pires, Laurent Blanc, Christophe Dugarry , and William Gallas. In 2004, Marseille also reached the final of the UEFA cup beating Liverpool -1-1 at Anfield and 2-1 at Le Velodrome-  thanks to two goals from Drogba, Inter Milan - 1-0 and 1-0 - and Newcastle - 0-0 and 2-0. That was the game that Drogba scored the goal that still carries his name. They lost by a penalty to Valencia in the final.

 

Marseille has proved a training ground for many talents as various as Sami Nasri now on his way to Arsenal, just like  Mathieu Flamini  Pires and Laurent Blanc. Fabien Barthez went to Manchester United,  Didier Deschamps, Gallas and Drogba toChelsea. Abdoulaye Meité to Bolton, Joseph Yobo to Everton and  Habib Beye to Newcastle. Franck Ribéry went to the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich and another Z player was the great Zinedine Zidane They have had their dark days too. In 1994 they were relgated for corruption and match fixing and then won the French league 2 but were made to stay there for another year.

 

Last season, Marseille made a catastrophic start and were  19 out of 20 in the table when they  changed coach bringing in  Eric Gerets in place of Albert Emon. It worked and they finished third.

 

They have signed some talented players such as the dazzling dribbling of  Hatem Ben Arfa from Lyon. Baki Koné has also been recruited to strengthen the  forward team already composed of Mamadou Niang, former Liverpool player Djibril Cissé and the wandering Bolo Zenden who has played for Barcelona, Chelsea Middlesbrough and Liverpool. Julien Rofriguez and Gael Givet were the central backs of Monaco when they reached the final of the champions league in 2004 after eliminating Real Madrid and Chelsea on their way.

 

Getting tickets for matches can be tricky as most are bought up by fanatacial splinter groups of supporters associations. Le Virage Nord, is home to the Yankee Nord Marseille, Marseille Trop Puissant, Fanatics, and Dodgers supporters associations who buy up the tickets at the start of each season and sell them on to their members. It is protected from away supporters still by electrified fencing.  In 2002, the Virage Nord was officially re-named after  Patrice de Peretti, the late founder and leader of the supporters group Marseille Trop Puissant.

 

The  other end of the ground the Virage Sud  is controlled by supporter’s associations with the Commando Ultras 1984 and the South Winners in the middle and Amis de l’OM and Club Central des Supporteurs on either side. 

 

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