Marseille I - The sense of colonization

• Marseille strange but familliar

Having visited northern France, I was in Paris then I visited the famous Mont Saint Micheal Castle, but I have not yet felt the colonial atmosphere in France which bridges the relationship between Vietnam and France. Is the beginning of my journey to Marseille.

This time, I decided to go, because the distance from Barcenola to Marseille is only 1277 km, which is equivalent from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City - why do I hesitate?

• Marseille - the history of colonized trading port.

When I studied history in Vietnam many years ago, we heard that Marseille, the second largest city in France, is 2600 years old. Since early in the twentieth century, thousands of Vietnamese were forced to work as craftsmen, working in factories, plantations, farms that docked in Marseille and settled there.

Moreover, in Vietnam, when we were young, we were learnt to memorize Marseille as the first time the ship carrying Ba - Nguyen Tat Thanh docked in 1911 (Nguyen Tat Thanh later became Ho Chi Minh - the communist leader of Vietnam)

However, the more special thing that made me want to go to Marseille was also the first European place that a king of Vietnam arrived in 1922.

• Vietnam king and Marseille

I remember the story of the lamp hanging backwards.

When Vietnam was invaded by French colonialism, the Vietnamese court sent a delegation to France to talk about the issue of war. At that time, Vietnam was a backward country without equipment . For exmaple, Vietnam did not have electricity like incandescent bulbs we still use now.

Source photo: vietnamnet.com

Vietnam during 19th century, there was no bulb.

people used oil to make lighting in the evening

• Vietnam King did not believe the lighting bulb is true

When the messengers returned, they described the West to the king of Vietnam.

They talk about the incandescent light bulb for the mandarins and the Vietnamese king.

At that time, I tell you the truth, imagine the whole life of the Vietnamese king did not go out of his palace, he never even went abroad.

So, you know, he said this:

"I do not believe there is a backlit lamp, this is completely fabricated - Nonesense."

Ha ha, you may find it sad, but that is true, some of the Vietnamese kings at that time were very backward, conservative and the very stupid that led to Vietnam then became colonial France.

Again, when I love football so I do know about the United, Chelsea, Juventus, Barcelona , Marseille,  as well

• Cheap hostel in Marseille

I arrived in Marseille luckily because my booking hostel was cheap  in Marseille from which I visited so only a few days I was to the places that I have longed for.

In the early morning, down to the sidewalk cafe in the city center, I met many oversea Vietnamese doctors to eat breakfast together talk about my descendants, about Vietnam hometown, I suddenly see Marseille become familiar.

• Vietnam people living in Marseille - the result of colonization period

On the way, I saw some Vietnamese restaurants called Hanoi, Nha Trang and Sai Gon, which can be seen hidden in the city of Marseille where many Vietnamese live.

I took bus 60 from Vieux Port to catch bus 60 (direction opposite to MUCEM) to the final Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde as well as Barcelona, in Marseille also has a basilique on the highest point in the city.

From the top of Marseille. 

I came here early in the morning, it was a bit cold today, in general from here, I had a great view of the whole port city of Marseille. From here you can have a magnificent view of the entire city in the twilight, which can recognize the Saint Charles station a thousand miles away.

On the calendar of the hill, I read in 1214, a priest of Marseilles built a small church to the cathedral of Mother Maria on the top of a 161m hill opposite Marseilles,

• Notre Dame de la Garde

The hill is called La Garde, which leads to the name of the basilique Notre Dame de la Garde.

And from here, I looked up the statue of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit, 9.7 meters high, covered with 30,000 golden leaves shimmering.

According to the narrative, this statue was previously gold, until the Nazis invaded, the statue was taken away. After the liberation day with golden week, the people's donation ceremony has molded bronze statue and gold leaf. People of this region always believed that the sacred mom from the top of the church always blesses every one on the water as well as in daily life.

• Inside the church

  

  

Inside the church, I was impressed by the walls with a lot of special paintings. Not in any church in France where statues or religious paintings are replaced by paintings of ships in the port of Marseilles.

• The dream of being rich in colonial countries

Port of Marseille, the gateway to the French colonial world, I can imagine beyond that port, the French merchant ships to find the desire to change life in colonial countries such as Vietnam.

In that desire, it certainly includes the risks, the danger from piracy to the tropical storms.

• The paintings of shiips on the walls- A promise of coming back

I suddenly thought of the pictures/ paintings hanging on the walls in the church as a wish of the crew that Maria mother will protect and bless them.

Also in Vietnamese culture, I do not know in France how the photo walls hanging this kind of church or temple is represented as worship.

That is, if the ship is sinking offshore, its soul will know to find the right church in Marseille, so that relatives, the survivors know a place to remember the people who go away. And not come back.

Then I went down under the harbor, I walked to see the sky above. 

Walking down, I still see traces of artillery shrapnel on the left wing wall of the church. Underneath those traces, there are four plates in four languages, reminding the next generation of traces of the battle before the liberation of Marseille.

• The Tank protecting Marseille

I met a tank, it was to commemorate a fight against the Nazis during World War II.
I approached the tank named "Jeanne d'Arc". In the August 1944 engagements at the Notre Dame de la Garde church, the tank was hit by a grenade and the three men inside were killed. Their sacrifice contributed to the liberation of Marseille.
There is also a sign that the government of Marseille restored the tank, and exactly two years after the event, on August 25, 1946, the reconstructed tank was inaugurated for commemoration to a fierce war against Nazi Germany in Marseille.

Next, I continued to reach a place called Palais des congres du Pharo. 
( to be continued)

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