Peter Mayle's Marseille

Peter Mayle's Marseille


JUNE 11, 2014

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Fish market at the old port of Marseille.CreditFrance Keyser for The New York Times
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The raucous, bustling port city is the setting of “The Corsican Caper,” his third work of crime fiction that follows the private investigator Sam Levitt, this time as he outsmarts a rapacious Russian oligarch who plans to seize his friend’s chateau, modeled after the Napoleonic-era Palais du Pharo on the city’s promontory.Provence, that languid, lavender-covered stretch of France along the Mediterranean, is the region most fans associate with Peter Mayle. His 1989 memoir, “A Year in Provence,” about restoring an 18th-century farmhouse in the Luberon, became such a blockbuster it spawned a veritable franchise of Provençal travelogues, food guides and novels. Indeed, Mr. Mayle said he and his wife had to leave the region for several years just to take a break from eager fans turning up at his doorstep (and from his detractors grumbling about those tourists disturbing the area’s tranquillity).

For the past few years, though, Mr. Mayle has turned his attention to a part of France that was never intended to be quiet: Marseille.Photo

Peter Mayle. Credit Betina La Plante

“You get there at sunset,” Mr. Mayle said of the chateau, “and it’s as if it’s been positioned specifically for you.”

He added, “I only wish I had 50 million euros to have a go at it.”

Recently Mr. Mayle talked about his favorite spots in Marseille, which he discovered on monthly trips while researching his books. Following are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Q. To learn about Marseille, where did you first go?

A. The fish market in the old port. You buy something there, and you know it was in the water a half-hour ago. There’s sea bass, sea bream, a fish called la dorade royale, which is always touted with such enormous enthusiasm by these wonderful old ladies. I mean, it would make a stevedore blush, their language. It’s just extraordinary. Also in the old port is this pavilion Norman Foster made called Ombrière, which makes the light absolutely fantastic. It’s like a beam was switched on it.

And where did you go from there?


A pleasant wander is to go up to the Corniche, which runs along the side of the beach. The historic center itself is interesting and a good place to go out on foot because it’s quite compact. There’s a section in there called the Panier, which has quite extraordinary buildings. La Vieille Charité, for one. It was a sort of poorhouse, but the most stunningly designed, beautifully built poorhouse. That part of the city is full of all sorts of surprises like that. You can have a very pleasant time doing nothing at all.

Any restaurants you recommend?


We always try to go to a place called Le Boucher, which is a butcher’s, but in the back is a restaurant. The meat is extremely good, and you don’t get tourists there, really. Another favorite is Le Bistrot d’Édouard, and that’s a tapas restaurant in the Eighth Arrondissement. Another place is called Péron, right on the Corniche. It’s very good food, very elegant service, and you feel as though you’re hanging over the sea. You’ve got this extraordinary view of the Frioul Islands.
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What's your favorite spot for bouillabaisse, the local specialty?

We like Le Petit Nice. The chef, Gérald Passédat, has an extensive menu, but his specialty is bouillabaisse. It’s a place you go to not very often because it’s very expensive. And you have to be a fastidious eater because you get covered in its gravy, this delicious, very spicy mix from the fish and rouille, a piquant paste. The best outfit for eating it is a swimsuit, really.

How are the Marseillais different from the Provençaux?


They’re more — well, they’re just more. They’re louder, speak more, laugh more and muck around with you more. I’d much rather that than have someone stand two feet away with his hands in pockets, as we do in England, and say, “How’s the weather on your end?” I’m always receptive to people who are great extroverts, and most of them seem as though they are great extroverts. They love drama. They love their food and drink. Voices raised, you think they’re about to kill one another, and then they kiss each other and all go off to the bar.

They have a saying down here: A shark is a Marseille sardine.