I took a walk through this beautiful world felt the cool rain on my shoulder found something good in this beautiful world i felt the rain getting colder sha, la, la, la, la, la, sha, la, la, la, la, la, sha, la, la, la, la, la, sha, la, la, la, la anthony if youve been to france, chances are you havent been here. Frances second largest city, the oldest city in france. It sits right by the mediterranean. The food is famously good. Yet, its a victim of bad reputation, bad history. Marseille. As it turns out, exactly the kind of place i like. But, this is a buddy picture, isnt it . Eric ripert is the chef of the threestar la bernardin in new york, a chevalier of france. I think that means hes some kind of knight or something, and my friend. This causes him some problems. He, i like to remind him, has a reputation to protect. I do not. Welcome to marseille. Eric yeah. Anthony youve never been here. Eric never. Anthony how is this even possible . You grew up how far from here . Eric like, u
anthony: marseille was once the hub, the rough and tumble principal port for france s colonies such as tunisia, morocco and algeria. as a result, the sights and smells of africa permeate the city. there has been attempts to dissuade me from, oh, marseille, you don t want to go there. and yet i come here. correct me if i m wrong it is a beautiful city. it smells good. you smell the different pastries. the tajine, bouillabaisse and bourride. and it s an extraordinary-looking city and the people are really interesting-looking. cedric: i must say, you are in the center of the world because the world is in marseille. we are connected to the mediterranean sea so it s very different from the north of france. i feel closer to a guy from morocco than a guy from maybe germany or, etcetera. it s different.
people, the rich people, et cetera, so that s interesting. anthony: femina s is an algerian restaurant with some of the better couscous in town, and since it s a very filling dish and i ve only got one crack at it, i go for the royale, what else? vegetables, chickpeas, merguez sausage, chicken, hunks of lamb, and meatballs. what people say is that everybody sees themselves as marseillais first and french second regardless of your background. is that true? cedric: because in marseille, we love the city. it s our city, and in the same time we hate a lot of aspects. we have both love and hate. it s part of a complex, i think. marseille has always made the bad choices in politics. when france lost its colonies, it was an economic disaster for marseille. i m thinking about one of your cities in the states, detroit. it was a huge city. it was very important. anthony: yep.
anthony: cedric fabre is a marseillais crime writer, who spent decades deciphering the dense layers of crime and corruption, pastiche, and sunshine. it s a perfect town for writers of noir. plenty of atmospherics and lurid history. why do you think it s such a fertile ground to set a crime novel? cedric: for me, it s more interesting because you write about the place you live in. i walk in the street, i have an idea, etcetera. i couldn t write about past things, like james ellroy does, because i have to know the real the real part of the city, the people. anthony: here, it s a really interesting stew of characters. cedric: in marseille, there is a very poor area and a very rich area. the difference between those two areas is the worst in france, so that makes an interesting city because when we write a crime novel, we write about those differences between the poor
and beautiful. cedric: and what happened. anthony: yeah. we abandoned detroit. we abandoned it. it became too black for america to love. cedric: maybe france is abandoning marseille. sometimes people say, in marseille people, they are racist. i would say in marseille people, they are connected with other people. anthony: let s hope marseille, people figure that out because i think it s amazing here. if you ask real marseillais these days, what s the iconic dish? the one thing you most closely associate with home? the answer might surprise you. pizza. marseille, it turns out, is the pizza truck capital of france. anthony: so this could be a whole new beginning for you,