Marseilles: Corniche. Bouillabaisse.
Return from the Bonneveine terminus by the tram for the Place de Rome, near 12 in plan. On its way it follows the [Corniche] road, considered the most beautiful drive about Marseilles, fare ½ fr. The gardens and pleasure-grounds in the whole of this neighbourhood are due to the irrigation afforded by the canal. Of the bathing establishments on the Corniche road the best is the Roucas Blanc; and of the restaurants the best is the Hotel Roubion, a first-class house, charging 15 frs. per day, and for vin ordinaire, lights, and service, 5 frs. additional. The house is situated on an eminence rising from the Corniche road, at the entrance into the Vallon de l’Oriol, commands a splendid sea view, has handsome dining-rooms, and is famed for its fish dinners and Bouillabaisse. Trams and omnibuses are constantly passing it. This establishment, as well as most of the other restaurants along the Corniche road, has tanks in the rocks on the beach, in which is kept a supply of live fish to make the Provence dish called [Bouillabaisse], a kind of fish soup, which, like most national dishes—plum-pudding, puchero, haggis, etc.—admits of considerable latitude in the preparation. The essentials are—whole rascasses and chapons (scorpion fishes), and rock lobsters stewed in a liquor mixed with a little of the best olive oil, and flavoured with tender savoury herbs. An extra good Bouillabaisse should include also crayfish, a few mussels, and some pieces of any first-class fish, such as the bass.
Marseilles: Palais de Longchamp.
Those having little time to devote to Marseilles should, after taking
a short stroll about the Port and in the Rues Cannebière and Noailles, enter the Joliette tram on its way up to the Palais de Longchamp, fare 2 sous. [The Palais de Longchamp], which cost £165,000, consists of two rectangular wings, united by a semicircular colonnade of Ionic volute-fluted columns. In the centre, under a richly-sculptured massive archway, an inscription records that the great undertaking of bringing the water of the Durance to Marseilles was begun on the 15th November 1839, and was accomplished on the 8th July 1847, in the reign of Louis Philippe I. Another records that the palace was commenced in the reign of Napoleon III., on the 7th April 1862, and finished on the 15th August 1869. From a group of colossal bulls under the colonnade gushes a copious stream of water, which in its descent makes a cascade of 90 ft. in three stages. The wing to the right, standing with the face to the palace, contains the Natural History Museum; and the other, the picture and sculpture galleries.
All the pictures are labelled. On the first floor are some large pictures by French artists and a few statues. In the second small room left hand is a collection of sketches by famous painters. Among the best pictures in the large centre hall of the upper story are:—F. Bol, d. 1681, portrait of woman and of King of Poland; Bourdon, d. 1671, portrait of P. de Champaigne; Cesari, d. 1640, Noah inebriated; Fontenay, d. 1715, Fruit; Girodet, d. 1824, Fruit; Gongo, d. 1764, Sacrifice to Venus and Jupiter; Greuze, d. 1805, portrait; Holbein, d. 1554, portrait; Loo, d. 1745, portrait of lady; Maratta, d. 1713, Cardinal Cibo; Mignard, d. 1695, Ninon de Lenclos; Nattier, d. 1766, Mme. de Pompadour as Aurora; Peeters, d. 1652, marine scene; Pellegrino, d. 1525, Holy Family; Perugino, d. 1524, Holy Family; F. Porbus, d. 1584, portrait; Raphael, d. 1520, St. John; Rembrandt, d. 1669, A Prophetess (sibyl); Reni, d. 1642, The Protectors of Milan; Ribera, d. 1656, Juan de Porcida; Rigaud, d. 1745, Duc de Villars; Rubens, d. 1640, Wild-boar Hunt; Salvator Rosa, d. 1675, Hermit; Veronese, d. 1588, Venetian princess; Zurbaran, d. 1662, St. Francis. In the room to the right is the “École Provençal,” containing, among other paintings—Barry, The Bosphorus; Duparc, d. 1778, The Milkmaid, and portraits of old man, woman, and girl knitting; Papety, d. 1849, “La Vierge Consolatrice”; P. Puget, Madonna. In the left room are, among others, J. F. Millet, b. 1815, Woman feeding Child.
The most important parts of the Museum of Natural History are the conchological division and the collection of ammonites.
From the Palace gardens is a good view of Marseilles. Behind the palace, on the top of the hill, is the great reservoir 242 ft. above the sea, supplied with water from the main channel by a branch canal. (See under [Roquefavour], p. 77.) At this part of the hill is one of the entrances to the Zoological Gardens; free on Sundays, when they are crowded with people. Near the entrance is the Observatory, one of the most important in France.
Marseilles: Hôtel de Ville. La Consigne.
The port of Marseilles has in all an area of 422 acres, and is protected on the E. by Cape Croisette, and on the W. by Cape Couronne. Its approaches are lighted by 6 lighthouses, of which the most distant is on the Planier rock, 130 ft. above the sea, and 8 m. S.W. from Marseilles. The large steam vessels lie in the dock La Joliette, covering 55 acres, and finished in 1853; while the old-fashioned trading-vessels, with their lateen sails, crowd together in the harbour called emphatically the “Port,” containing 75½ acres. From the end of the “Port” extends eastwards the handsome and greatly-frequented street La Cannebière, so called from the rope-walks, whose site it now occupies. At nearly the middle of the N. side of the “Port” is the [Hôtel de Ville] (1 in plan), built in the 17th cent., and adorned with sculpture by Puget, born at Marseilles; while at the western extremity of the same side, next Fort St. Jean, is a low building called La Consigne, or Health Office. Over the chimney-piece in the council-room of the [Consigne] is a beautiful relief in white marble by Puget, representing the plague at Milan. To the right is a picture by Gerard, representing Bishop Belsunce administering the sacrament to the plague-stricken inhabitants of Marseilles in 1720. To the left, St. Roch before the Virgin, by David. Fronting the windows, “The frigate Justice returning from Constantinople with the plague on board,” “l’an 4 de la République.” Opposite the fireplace, “The cholera on board the Melpomene,” by Horace Vernet. Next it, by Guerin, “The Chevalier Rose assisting to bury those who had died of the plague.” Between them is a Crucifixion by Auber. Between the two windows is a portrait of Bishop Belsunce. (Fee, ½ fr.) Near the Consigne is the pier of the ferry-boats. Above the Hôtel de Ville is the town infirmary, and beyond it, on a terrace 30 ft. above the quay of Joliette, [ Marseilles: Cathedral.
Arc de Triomphe.] the Cathedral, a Byzantine basilica, 460 ft. from S. to N., and 165 ft. from E. to W. at the transept; built of gray Florentine stone alternating with a whitish sandstone from the neighbourhood of Arles. The nave is 52 ft. wide, and the roof 82 ft. high. The great dome is 196 ft. high. Behind the cathedral are the Episcopal palace