Egg throwing vandalism at the Memorial Des Camps de la Mort, Marseille

After our visits to Notre Dame de la Garde and Abbaye St.Victor we decided to visit a museum with the City Pass. The closest to us, the Musée de la Mode (Fashion), supposedly was closed and relocated so we decided to visit the Memorial des camps de la Mort (Holocaust memorial/museum) instead especially since we were unable to visit a concentration camp in Berlin.

So we walked a good 20 minutes in the blazing heat on Quai du Port to what appeared to be a construction zone as the museum is at the base of the Fort St Jean currently undergoing renovations. We were unsure of the entrance so I left my sisters waiting by the road while I went around to one corner. It was the entrance to the construction zone and had one of those danger signs posted so I decided to hurry back.

Just as I did I heard and felt something land a short distance from me. I thought it was falling debris from above so I quickened my steps. At this point M’sa was walking towards me and this time another one of those “falling debris” landed right next to my feet. It had splattered and looked wet. What is that?! I asked to the response of egg. How can that be egg, where is it coming from, and in my vision I conjured a large bird just laying eggs while flying through the sky.

But no, the eggs were missiles, not of nature, but of a few boys ( they were probably teens or young men old enough to know better but boys they shall be called here) who had stationed themselves at the top of the fort on each side of the street. Oh what a vantage point. (In the picture below we are in between the two large structures on the left and they are on top)

So for the next 15 minutes or so that it took us to get out of their range we were trying to avoid being targets. It wasn’t as fun as it sounds. After all, we had not signed up for a one-way game of dodgeball with eggs nonetheless.

We didn’t get hit though we caught some splatter. N’ku almost did which led to her standing there to berate them, yell police, and take pictures while they tried to perfect their target practice on her and I tried to distance myself from the war zone.

I don’t know why these foolish boys decided to target us or to throw eggs there. We weren’t the only pedestrians though. There was a scattering of other tourists including a threesome of two Caucasian young women and a man. That man got hit front and center. Poor dude. I mention their race only to eliminate our being Black as the reason for being targets. When we realized it was eggs being thrown at us, we noticed that there were a lot of dried egg splatters on the ground so either these fools had been at it all day or this location is a favoured one for the hooligans of the city to play.

Which only leaves me to conclude that it may have something to do with the Holocaust Memorial and makes me wonder if the fools were of Arabian descent, for there’s a significant population of North Africans in Marseille (the fools weren’t Black nor were they fair and blond).

Quel dommage!

And to top it off the museum had closed for the day!

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