The fantastic European Heritage Days

Hello Charlie!

Today, I'm going to talk about the European Heritage Days. It is a moment I really like because we can visit many different places we find interesting. Sometimes we just visit for the beauty of the building or the monument or sometimes there is a guided tour that is often free.

This year, I visited some monuments I wanted to visit and that I had not been able to visit last year, as we were celebrating my Mum's birthday.

So, this year, I have been able to visit:

• the City Hall and its extensions,
• the Palais du Pharo,
• the Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica secret patios,
• the Civil Court (Palais Monthyon),
• the Palais de la Bourse,
• and the Saint-Victor abbey's crypts.

I will not speak about everything because it would be too long and too annoying and thus no one would read my article, even if at the moment, I'm not sure of the number of potential readers I could have...

I'm not sure anyone matters… but anyway, let's continue!

First of all, the City Hall. It was a great building and as there was a free guided tour, so I joined it and I learnt many things! Indeed, I didn't know that it was absolutely no staircase between the ground floor and the first floor of the old building that we can see from the Vieux-Port.

A few centuries ago, it was representing the separation between the economical and executive powers.

Nowadays, there is still no staircase, and to access the first level, we have to use a footbridge between the original building and the first extension.

The interior of the buildings is really beautiful and majestic. Actually, the architects invested everything inside the buildings, especially for the 1rst extension. This is the main staircase, a beautiful one:

The visitors were also allowed to visit Mr The Mayor - Jean-Claude Gaudin's office. I was a bit surprised by the size of his office, I was expecting it to be really bigger! Especially for the Mayor of a such important city!

Here is a photo of it that I found on internet because mine were not that nice…

And finally, we visited the new extension, that hosts the new hemicycle. The design of this extension was very modern and was making a true difference between the original building and the one designed by Mr Franck Hamoutène.

The new deliberation room is really bigger, more modern and has electronic devices such as computer for each desk that allow the council members to vote easily and to write messages to their colleagues.

Here is another photo I found on internet because mine were still not really nice…

That's it for the City Hall.

As I said before, I have also visited many other buildings but I will only present the Civil Court, as it was my favourite and as I really like the judicial domain.

So, the Civil Court of Marseille is hosted by the Palais Monthyon, a wonderful building. It has been renovated for years and is today greater than it was before. There are audience rooms, all very nicely designed and with many different equipments judges can be in need of during the audiences.

Here is a photo of an audience room I had already visited but that I still find great, that I have found on internet:

Audience rooms are beautiful, but the Hall of Lost causes is also very nice, with its huge glass roof:

This visit was great for the building, first, but was also great for the information and the discussion I had with a student who wanted to become a Magistrate, who was studying at the Law College and who was here to answer questions and to give information about French Justice. We spoke together for a long time about the job of Magistrate, how do we enter the ENM, the École Nationale de la Magistrature, etc. even I already knew some of the things he told me, I really enjoyed that time! It is always nice to find some people we can talk with about topics we like…

I hope that having read that, some of you will go to monuments they like during the next European Heritage Days, because it is really great, for architecture and for the things we can learn there!

I also hope this article was interesting, and I hope you enjoyed it!

Well… See you at the Next Heritage Days, Charlie!

Toàn

By the way, my feelings trying to post my article while my computer crashes:

What a great time... 😂