Marseille: a vibrant city and its deadly feuds

One of my favourite cities, Marseille, is never far away from the headlines and often enough for the wrong reasons. My piece for The National looks at the continuing series of gangland killings ...

France’s second and oldest city Marseille, with its rich but tumultuous history dating from its creation by ancient Phocaean settlers, has many faces.

There is the Marseille the tourists see: the magnificent Vieux Port; the exotic sights and scents of the North African market tucked behind the city’s main avenue, the Canebiere, and the rugged cliffs and hills of the nearby Calanques National Park.

Among its other faces is an uglier one that reveals itself in a relentless stream of gangland killings – the reglement de comptes or tit-for-tat assassinations committed in defence of drug territory or to avenge previous murders, and sometimes lesser provocations, by rival criminals.

 

                                                                               Image: Benh LIEU SONG