Sylvie doesn’t live in Marseille itself, but clearly the first thing that comes to her mind when we mention the sport-politics-religion combo is “wow, wonderful smile”, followed by the appropriate emoticon. Like Sylvie, many of our readers who responded to our call for testimonials are moved by the busy weekend looming in Marseille. On the program: the historic arrival of Pope Francis, the rugby world championships and the presence of Emmanuel Macron at the Vélodrome for the mass at the end of the papal tour. A menu that’s a little too heavy and seems to make a lot of Marseillais feel nauseous.
To our question “are you going to leave Marseille this weekend?” », Hélène, Sylvie or Bruno answered “yes”. The City may have introduced free parking on all streets until Saturday 7 p.m., more or less the time scheduled for takeoff of the plane bringing the Pope back to the Vatican, but nothing is happening. Traffic restrictions scare away Hélène who is “leaving Marseille this weekend for Avignon”. “Between the bars and restaurants, the crowded beaches and the changed traffic, it will be difficult to enjoy the weekend there! “, she says.
“Take refuge with my more hospitable earth”
Marion chose to head to the Blue Coast to surf: “We don’t always have waves in the Mediterranean, on Friday and Saturday a meter of swell is expected. So, I kill two birds with one stone, I avoid the madness of Marseille. » Xavier, for his part, would have stayed for rugby. “The English, Argentinians, South Africans and Scots had already spread a unique atmosphere in the city,” he confides. “But the arrival of a horde of idolaters of the Holy Father and his beadle Manu the Sneaky ended up convincing me to take refuge with my friends in a more hospitable land,” he adds, without specifying the said land. far from the 100,000 people expected on the route of the “Papamobile” in Marseille.
Estelle, for her part, found plane tickets for 70 euros to Barcelona. Departure Thursday, return Sunday. “Rather than being stuck here for three days without being able to move, we preferred to anticipate and leave,” she wrote. “The president, the pope, rugby and the international fair! In the most clogged city in France with Paris… Already without any event, our city is constantly clogged, so with all this at the same time, it will be the apocalypse,” predicts the Marseillaise.
“Here in l’Estaque, we fear disgust! »
An Elodie, who is also wary of the Marseille transport network: “Knowing that we only have two non-air-conditioned metro lines, two tram lines (which follow the metro…) and buses stuck in traffic all the time… » Thereupon, 20 Minutes Marseille cannot prove him wrong, even if the RTM (metropolitan transport authority) promises a “reinforced system”, namely a tram every five minutes on line 3, and a frequency “up to two minutes” all day long. Saturday in the metro. Not enough to convince Bruno to come downtown that day. “Here in l’Estaque, we fear degun,” he taunts. So the weekend will be quiet. » On the program: “bike ride in the hills and perhaps beaches of Corbières early in the morning”, “a paradise in this season”. “In short, Macron, rugby, football (sorry!), we don’t give a damn! », he writes to us.
Same thing for Capucine, “delighted to leave the city” to look after her great-nephews in Paris, even the occasion is a coincidence of the calendar. That said, she doesn’t expect much better in the capital: “it’s also hell in Paris at the moment, there’s rugby, work…”.