Anyone who has even been to Marseille knows about its beloved Marché aux Poissons (fish market). The oldest and second largest city in France, Marseille was founded in 600 BC by the Greeks and became one of the most important port towns along the Mediterranean Sea. Given its prime location and wonderful harbor came a long-held tradition of fishing. The Marché aux Poissons has been around for centuries and is the best place around for fish lovers to buy the freshest seafood in France.
Perhaps the most picturesque place in all of Marseille is the lovely “Le Panier” district. One of the oldest parts of town founded by the Greeks over 2,600 years ago, Le Panier is known for her charming narrow, paved streets and steps that curve up and down the quaint hillside north of Marseille’s Vieux Port.
The enchanting Le Panier, Marseille’s Old Town
Author’s note: This is the second post documenting my visit on behalf of Mom Bloggers for Social Good to see Save the Children’s work at the Indira Kalyan slum in Delhi, India. To read the first post click here.
India has made a tremendous amount of progress over the last two decades fighting to save the lives of mothers and children. A decade ago close to 75,000 women died during childbirth every year and this number has been reduced to 56,000 in 2010. Significant progress has also been made in newborn survival. Since 1990, India has reduced the rate of deaths of children under 5 by 46% or almost in half. Despite the major achievements, newborn and maternal dealths are still way too high given the tragic fact that many of these deaths are largely preventable. The situation is especially dire in India, the second most populous country in the world, with a hugely disproportionate percentage of maternal and newborn deaths.
Inside The Indira Kalyan Camp, an unauthorized slum in Delhi
Women inside the indira Kalyan Camp
Per Save the Children’s 2013 State of World’s Mother’s Report:
Children within the Indira Kalyan Camp pose for a picture
“Qu’a vist Paris e noun Cassis a ren vist.”
“He who has seen Paris and who has not seen Cassis can say … I have seen nothing.” Frédéric Mistral (1830 – 1914)
I had taken the short train ride from Marseille to Cassis, a small seaside fishing village, over twenty years ago. It was a sunny morning when we boarded the train and hopped off at the St. Charles train station, a 2-3 kilometer walk to town. If I close my eyes, I can picture the lush verdant greenery of the rugged countryside of Provence, the brilliant blue seaside and the reddish-orange terra cotta tiles of the rooftops. I also remember the beautifully colored buildings and boats of Cassis and how magical a place I had found. Would her colorful, playful buildings still dance atop the turquoise sea?
The spectacular Harbor at Cassis
Like many places in the world, I never believed it would take me twenty years to get back. But sometimes life gets in the way and keeps you busy. As I road the bus from Marseille to Cassis, over twenty years later with my sister and mother, I wondered and desperately hoped, “Would it be the same”?
So often memories are nostalgic for a reason. Things change. Places get discovered and sadly get spoiled. Would Cassis have the same fate as so many other beautiful places in Europe? Would it be lined with tacky t-shirt and souvenir shops taking all of her beloved charm away? Would it be overcome with tourists pushing and shoving for a table at an outdoor cafe? I would have to wait and see.
Perched high above the city of Marseille lies the crowned jewel The Notre Dame de la Garde which affords the most spectacular 360 degree view that can be found in all of Provence. Founded on the site of a small chapel built in 1214 overlooking Le Vieux Port of Marseille, the Notre Dame de la Garde is the most majestic basilica in the region and can be seen standing prominently from nearly every street in the city. Literally translated as “Our Lady of the Guard“, “La Bonne Mère” or “Good mother” as she is lovely called, is as symbolic to Marseille as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. Locals have believed for centuries that she watches over the city and protects its inhabitants.
Dramatic view of the Notre Dame de la Garde which dominates over the city of Marseille.
They called her Braveheart, a name that symbolizes a fighter. People have also called her Fearless and India’s Daughter. Due to Indian law, the real name of a rape victim is withheld from the press. For some reason the name Braveheart seemed to stick.
Months after her tragic, horrifying death Delhi’s Braveheart continues to tear away at Indian society and many Indians’ cry for change. Braveheart’s December 16th gang rape on a moving bus has gained worldwide attention, outrage and grief. Further high-profile rapes such as the recent rape of a Swiss and American tourist have continued to push the not so pretty truth about the status of women in India into the forefront. Meanwhile, India’s tourist industry has been reeling with a 35 % decline in female tourists for the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year (Source: Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India). It is evident that foreign women travelers are concerned about the dangers of traveling to a place with such a tarnished reputation for women’s rights and safety.
In a country where a rape is reported every 21 minutes, and gruesome rapes of young children are inundating the news, you would think that it would be enough to push for societal and governmental change. Yet has anything really truly changed for the millions of women in India and around the world who are faced with violence, discrimination, harassment, intimidation, neglect and unworthiness every single day of their lives?
Monday night I had the pleasure of showing off my amazing town and its progressive dining scene to a couple of travel, foodie and photographer bloggers, Anita’s Feast and her husband Tom from Switzerland. I had met Anita last year at BlogHer in New York and we have kept in touch via social media ever since. Little did I know, her husband and travel photographer Tom Fakler is originally from Minnesota and had recently spent a few months in Nepal on a photography trip volunteering for an NGO. When I heard they were coming to Minneapolis to visit family, we scheduled a date to meet for coffee to catch up. We had so much to talk about that meeting for dinner was inevitable.
Since Anita is a travel and food blogger I had to pick somewhere wonderful to show off our town and it’s amazingly diverse dining scene. Piccolo, a small eclectic restaurant nearby my home was the first place that came to mind.
Traveling the world with a third-eye has always been the way I prefer to experience life. It means to view life openly and see everything – good or bad- with an open mind and heart. The world through my eyes can be contradictory and complex. Seeing both good and bad can bring so much immense joy and happiness while also such deep sadness that it makes your heart ache. Yet in my humble opinion, you cannot go through life with a blind eye. Otherwise nothing will change.
On my most recent trip through the Delhi slums as part of Mom Bloggers for Social Good, I saw a tremendous amount through my eyes. If I could look beyond the immense poverty, destruction, destitution and disease, I could also find beauty and hope. Beauty in the lovely warm smiles across the children’s eager faces whenever I pulled my camera out to snap their photo. Hope among the innocent faces of the girls in schools finally being given a chance to learn.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The world through my eyes sees so incredibly much.
This post was written in response to the Weekly Photo Challenge: The World Through My Eyes. To view more entries, click here.
At the end of April, we traveled via TGV south from Paris to the Mediterranean town, Marseille. The second largest and oldest city in France, Marseille has experienced a dramatic rebirth from a rather banal port city to a vibrant, cultural mecca in line with any of Europe’s major cosmopolitan cities.
Room with a view of Vieux Port and Notre Dame de la Garde
I was curious to see Marseille again as it had been a very long time. Twenty years ago I wanted to faire un stage thus spent the summer as an intern at a French business after graduating from university. I honestly do not have many fond memories of my time there. I loved the region of Provence surrounding Marseille yet found the city to be dirty, uninspiring and relatively bland. After hearing so much fanfare about Marseille and what a magnificent city it has become, I decided to give it another whirl and I was not the slightest bit disappointed in what I found.
In Marseille, I found a pell mell of culture and electricity that other cities would die to have just a sliver of. In a nutshell, Marseille had come to life with a pizzazz and heartbeat that pulsates the city like a radiant shower of gold.
The lovely sailboats of the Vieux Port.
Within the chaotic narrow streets of Old Delhi lies the largest mosque in India, the Jama Masjid, whose enormous courtyard has the capacity to hold 25,000 devotees. Built between 1644 and 1658, this sensational mosque was the last extravagnance commissioned by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, whose love for his wife resulted in the world-famous Taj Mahal in Agra and zest for beauty and power built the Red Fort of New Delhi.
The Jama Masjid’s spectacular beauty resides in her masterful architecture of various curving archways, gates, minarets, towers and decorative carvings. Jama Masjid’s brilliant red-hued sandstone juxtaposed against white marble is equally as impressive especially on a sunny, bright day. It took over 6,000 workers, mostly slaves, to build the mosque and today it remains one of India’s crown jewels and an important place of worship.
No trip to Paris would ever be complete without a visit to the beloved Cathédrale de Notre-Dame. Built between 1163 and 1345 the Notre Dame has withstood centuries of history and is one of the most iconic cathedrals in the world. Not only is the Notre Dame a pure masterpiece of French Gothic architecture, it has also remained the city’s heart and soul for centuries of dynamic struggle and change.
There are moments in life when you are so deeply moved by what one person can do to make a difference in the world that it takes your breath away. This is how I felt when I met Sonal Kapoor, founder of Protsahan, a school for underprivileged girls in the heart of India. Not even thirty years old, Kapoor is already considered one of the most inspiring young social entrepreneurs in the world and after a visit to her beautiful school in the slums of Delhi, it is no doubt that she and her pupils will go far.
Many are aware of the huge inequities and poverty strangling India. Although India has seen rapid economic growth over the last decade, the gap between rich and poor has become even wider and more profound. As migrant families leave their villages in rural India and come to the big cities in search for a better life, the growth of urban slums, many in deplorable conditions, continues to grow at unmanageable rates. In just Delhi alone, there are thousands of them. (The slum population in India is estimated at 62 million people and around 1.7 million residing in Delhi alone. Source: The Hindu). As almost 75,000 migrants come to Delhi alone each year, many of them end up populating the already over-crowded urban slums that can be found all throughout the city, even alongside some of Delhi’s poshest neighborhoods. (Source: The Hindu).
An all to frequent site within the Delhi slums: Garbage and the sacred cow.
