Marseille: France’s Crumbling City

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2019

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the 5th November last year, two apartment buildings collapsed in Marseille’s historic centre. Eight people died in a tragedy which has sent shockwaves through France’s second city, and the country.

The accident shed light on something that residents have been saying for years: Marseille’s city centre is falling apart. After decades of neglect by slum landlords, the poor, multi-ethnic area in the heart of the city is in a desperate state of disrepair. In a frantic attempt to avoid further disasters, the local government has evacuated thousands of residents from the area - and hundreds are still staying in hotels.

This tragedy has morphed into a political scandal which is shaken Marseille to the core – and anger at the local authorities is still palpable.

Presenter: Lucy Ash Producer: Josephine Casserly

(Image: Graffiti in the neighbourhood of Noailles, Marseille. Credit: BBC)

Transcript

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0:00.0	It feels quite eerie now because you just look up and you see a big patch of blue sky and a sea girl flying overhead.
0:10.0	It looks quite peaceful, but eight people died here.
0:13.6	Yeah, right, for me it's not peaceful.
0:16.2	It's very, I feel angry when I see that and I'm very sad also.
0:21.6	I still very sad also still very sad.
0:25.0	This is assignment on the BBC World Service.
0:28.0	I'm Lucy Ash and this week I'm in France's second city Marseille. My guide to this big bustling port on the
0:37.3	Mediterranean is journalist Miriam Leont. We're on the Rue d'obagni
0:42.0	opposite a gaping hole where three houses used to stand.
0:46.2	It reminds me of a mouth with some teeth hunched out.
0:52.4	On the 5th of November last year, two houses on the Rue d'Albaine,
0:56.3	number 63 and 65, suddenly collapsed at 9 o'clock in the morning.
1:01.8	For safety's sake, the Fire Brigade had to evacuate
1:04.8	and entirely demolish number 67 as well.
1:08.0	It's like a pack of cards. This what's happened here is like a pack of cards
1:16.6	falling down. After a week-long search, eight bodies were pulled from under the rubble. One was that of Ullome from the
1:25.6	Camorous Islands who that morning had just returned from taking her youngest son to school.
1:31.5	The origins of the other seven victims mirror the multicultural makeup of this
1:36.1	neighborhood. Fabia and Marie Emmanuel were from France. Simona was a student from Italy, Tahir from Tunisia,
1:45.0	Sharif from Algeria,
1:47.0	Niassa was born in Senegal,
1:49.0	and Julian in Peru.
	...

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