After a 15 minute walk, I was in the Old Charity Centre. This was on my list but I hadn’t done any reading. I didn’t know what to expect.
It turned out to be a 17-century baroque building in Marseille’s historic Panier district. Formerly an almshouse for the poor, the building now is a cultural centre. There are several museums tucked away in the arcades.
When I tried to enter the chapel, the person asked me for a ticket. I retraced my steps to the entrance and saw the ticket office. The tickets, it turned out, were free! As has become usual, they asked where I was from to note it for their records.
Every museum in the complex had someone asking me for a ticket. I’m not sure what purpose it served except, perhaps, to know how many people were entering each museum.
The museums, though individually small, were visually interesting. Since the text was mostly in French, I could only vaguely understand it. There were museums for Mediterranean Archaeology, Art of Africa (many face masks), Mexican artefacts, and Pacific artefacts. There was even an Egyptian museum with a preserved crocodile. The Egyptians must have been prolific because every country I go to has some of their products. I only hope there’s enough left in Egypt for people to see and learn about their history!
As usual, this fleeting visit took longer than expected. At the end, I sat down at the outdoors cafe and ordered “Cafe latte avec lait de l’avione”. It was the usual story of me being able to start talking in the local language and not understanding the reply. Fortunately, the server’s English was immaculate.
Although there shouldn’t be, there’s a difference when abroad between initially talking English and eventually talking English. Attempting to speak a foreign language usually pleases, entertains or surprises locals, especially if the language is not common. People are very bemused when I speak a little Japanese to them. The French suffer my attempt to speak their language. They listen patiently as I try to formulate a sentence then reply, sometimes in French before quickly switching to English when they see the look of bafflement on my face. Sometimes they ask me, in English, which language I speak. And other times they start speaking in English straight away.
I’m not sure if it’s just me but I have had locals come up to me and ask me something in French (in France) and German (in Germany). When I explained to a Frenchwoman, who was asking for directions, that my French was very poor, she replied with a smile, “Ah, tourist!”.
Just as a person’s name is their favourite word, attempting to speak a person’s language is usually very welcome. So I try to learn, at the very least, “hello”, “bye”, “please”, “thank you”, “where are the toilets?”, and some numbers in a foreign language.