See and Hear France Through a Google Maps Walking Tour

by Todd R. Weiss

First, we are introduced to our guide, Christophe, by clicking the blue “Start your walk” button and walking with him over the bridge to start our night tour. Follow the green line to start seeing the sights.

Along the tour, the blue, red and yellow icons highlight a myriad of intriguing sights. In this slide, by clicking the yellow icon, you hear more about street artist Mr. P’s spray-painted portrait of former French general and President Charles De Gaulle.

In this image, a local artist spray-paints a colorful portrait on the security door of a local storefront through the magic of time-lapse video. By clicking the arrow, you see a video of the painting as it comes to life.

As we continue the tour, in this slide viewers can take in a performance by a local jazz band inside a club along one of Marseille’s streets. You can hear and watch the stirring performance by clicking the arrow on the video.

In this slide, we walk through the night streets along the cobblestones, taking in the architecture and murals. Clicking the yellow camera icon will provide details of the beautiful and intricate Zadim street art.

A group of street musicians entertains by playing makeshift instruments. You can watch and hear the video of the sounds of the streets by clicking the arrow.

The hazy mystery of the stylized old black and white films, the so-called film noir period, comes to life in this slide along the tour, as scenes from classic old French movies are interspersed with a modern view of Marseille’s streets at night.

Here we follow our guide as he spots a stray cat walking the dark streets. By clicking the red arrow, you can follow the cat into a local restaurant from the cat’s unique point of view; clicking another arrow shows Xavier the chef cooking his specialty.

Some of the works of the famous French stencil artist Jean-François Perroy, who works under the pseudonym of Jef Aérosol, are featured on the walls of this street.

Gustave Flaubert, a famous French novelist, walked these streets during the mid-1800s, and his presence is noted in this slide featuring a brief biography of his life. Also featured is a quote: “Here we feel a certain something of the Orient, we walk the city with great ease, we breath happy, the skin expands and inhales the sun as if it’s a great bath of light.”

A bookshop featured in “Total Chaos,” the first novel of French author Jean-Claude Izzo, sits here on this street in Marseille. This slide celebrates its presence and a passage from the book about the shop: “Our taste for books came from Antonin, an old second-hand bookseller, whose shop was on Cours Julien. We’d cut classes to go see him. He’d tell us stories of adventures and pirates.”

From the spectacular viewpoint of the Notre-Dame de la Garde Catholic basilica, we can see an amazing nighttime panorama of the city of Marseille, pictured in the distance. By clicking the yellow icon, one can see the panoramic view and, by clicking the blue icon, get more information about the history of the basilica, which opened in 1864.