the field of crosses

cross: close up, originally uploaded by julienpaul.

Easter weekend was spent in Marseille(s) with Zen, Hugh and a bunch of Josh's workmates.

Marseille was quite unlike any city I've been to before. It doesn't quite fit the European model I know of (old central town + suburbs), nor a damaged European city (ie Rotterdam), nor a western city (sky scrapers CBD). Tall public housing towers collide into old streets, all sculpted out of the hills and cliffs, jutting into the sea.

An unexpected highlight was an old ammunition storage facility on the Frioul islands. They had been built in ww2 to look like a cemetery from afar. The floor planks have since disappeared (where they made of wood? pre-fabricated concrete that was taken away?) and what is left is a grid of beams and columns with crosses at each peak. Haunting, intriguing.

Of course, we also saw corb..