Les choses changent
Dec. 28th, 2010 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The city is changing... it's strange. |
(Marseille, not through a looking glass. Zenit. Redscale.) |
We drove down Rue de la République the other day, I hadn't been there in a long time. I actually can't remember when was the last time I made it anywhere further than the town hall area around Vieux Port. They put a Starbucks there. Yes. In Marseille. Next thing you know the'll want to open some fancy tourist trap bar instead of OM Café on the port. But really that whole street is just too clean now, there are all these fancy huge shops... almost the same stuff you find on Rue St. Fé and Rue de Rome, yet the feeling is different. I suppose not many tourists would find walking along Rue St. Fé all that pleasing but that whole clean feeling isn't Marseille! Heck, yes, I don't like how busy those streets are but I'll take them on any day rather than what Rue de la République seems to have become. For those who didn't follow the whole Rue de la République deal, it's an old street that ends right on the Vieux Port and for a long time it was in a shabby state because the buildings are old and "old families" lived there. Then one day some really rich foreigners (from Texas iirc) and banks came, bought up all the façades, cleaned them, made a "clean" street and of course many of the people who used to live there could no longer afford it. But hey, now Marseille has a clean street where tourists from cruise ships can go shopping. Woopeedoo. Note: the above paragraph is my point of view, believe it as you see fit. (there is even a Wiki article on that street, but it's only in French, alas) |