Mes sans-abris

Hier soir - samedi, j'ai tourné avec Les Restos du Coeur. I left chez moi at 18h and walked to la Joliette to get the number 35 bus. I was sat on the bus leaving la Joliette looking at all the building work going on. La Joliette is getting a face lift, an expensive face lift. It's becoming Marseille's new centre of affaires. Appartments, offices, car parks and jobs are being constructed to attract companies to Marseille, to attract workers to Marseille. (Which is completely mad, there aren't enough jobs to go round as it is) It makes me angry to see billions of Euros being invested in a tall glass fancy shaped building that will be the new office or appartment of someone who's moved to Marseille for the new job, when I know that I'll be back in a few hours time, right next to where this expensive monstrosity is being built, feeding people who have only the clothes they stand in. Why is the Mayor insisting on spending money in attracting more people when he can't even look after the people he already has? And to think the people of Marseille re-elected him! Well, the rich-by comparison-to-the-north south re-elected him. The north voted entirely to the left.

As for the bus, I still never know which stop to get off at. I know it's called 'Littoral Pas du Faon' but that really doesn't help when you hurtling down a straight road which looks the same at the beginning as it does the end. I've been lucky in that there has been someone else getting off at my stop each time so it hasn't mattered I haven't realised I needed to get off and so haven't pressed the button. Ooh, tell a lie, there was one time, I ended up at the next stop after having realised I'd gone past the Les Restos du Coeur builing, it didn't matter though. It wasn't any further to walk from the stop past where I wanted to be than from the stop before.

Anyway, when I arrived I began counting out 80 bags. In each bag we put a sweet, a yoghurt, a pot of spreadable cheese and a cake bar. A baguette and tin of either sardines, mousse de canard or tuna was to be added later. We loaded up the van and off we went. I'm getting to know the route now where we go. Our first proper stop, after Rue de Lyon and the marche aux puces, is usually Bougainville, followed swiftly by Boulevard de Paris, Rue Peyssonel and Boulevard Mirabeau. We stopped on Rue Roger Salengro at the bakers for the bread which they give us and picked up a pizza. We stopped at Joliette where there were lots of people last night. We then went to Vieux Port and Le Panier. I know the sans abris now. There's Daniel at Bougainville who has a hot chocolate, Jean Claude who's from Luxembourg - he has a hot chocolate too. Then there's Ricardo who's Spanish, Daniel who lives on Rue Peyssonel in a very old van. The thought crossed my mind last night, why doesn't it have a million parking tickets on it? Why hasn't it been towed away? What will he do when it is towed away? The car that was parked outside my appartment since before I arrived last September had loads of unpaid parking tickets on it. It's since been towed away. There are other people too whose names I do not know but who I recognize. It was a busy night last night, we used all 80 of our bags of food, we ran out of water, of milk, of chocolate. And it was cold. Le mistral was blowing and it was cold. I came home at the end and had a nice warm cup of tea, a hot shower and collapsed into my comfy cosy bed. My sans-abris still outside, braving le mistral.