Highlights
- Discover traces of the colonial past that you won't find anywhere else
- Explore Marseille through the portraits of the people who make history
- Learn by answering riddles and general knowledge questions
- Equip yourself to understand how coloniality permeates our present
Description
At the beginning of the 20th century, Marseille's elites presented the city as the 'capital' of the French Empire. Today, the traces of this legacy are etched in stone, omnipresent, but illegible without a guide to reveal them.
Our tour winds from the bottom to the top of La Canebière, Marseille's most famous avenue, and ends at the foot of the monumental stairs of Saint-Charles train station. Through a dozen monuments, sculptures, plaques, and buildings, many of which are now used in unusual ways, I will tell you the history of the French colonial empire from its main harbor.
My style is decidedly interactive: get ready to answer my questions and riddles! I rely on numerous visual aids, including portraits of people associated with the various sites, to bring the history to life. But also maps, reproductions of old posters, and period postcards.
Together, we will unravel a tangle of events, practices and representations that spans five centuries and five continents. 'The long history with long tentacles,' as the writer Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, winner of the 2021 Prix Goncourt, calls it. But we will also consider how coloniality permeates the present.
A taste of the tour?
Read the article 'Marseille. In the Footsteps of the Colonial Empire' (in French, English, and Italian), which I wrote (Selim El Meddeb). I provide an overview of the groups that have recently mobilized around issues of (post)colonial memory in Marseille.
See you soon on Mars and the Empire,
Includes
Marseille and the Empire' tour: historical tour with a live guide in the center of Marseille, in the footsteps of the French colonial empire
Excludes
Food and drink
Important Information
- The tour is 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) long. Bring water and something to protect yourself from the sun
Easy cancellation
Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund
