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L'Estaque-The artists' port
If you are bold enough to weave through the ferries and container ships leaving Marseilles, you'll get a pleasant surprise when you reach the famous little village of l'Estaque, on the edge of the city. Moor up and take a step into a world of artists. 
"Red roofs against the deep blue sea… "The sun here is so terrific that objects appear silhouetted not only in white or black, but in blue, red, brown, violet." So said Paul Cézanne of the light that inspired his art work in l'Estaque. He was not the only one - many painters, authors and filmmakers have drawn inspiration from this fishing village on the edge of Marseilles.
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906). Cézanne had not come down from the North of France, like Dufy or Braque, to be surprised and overwhelmed by the Mediterranean light. He was born in the area, in Aix-en-Provence. Cézanne, who was to go on and become an impressionist master, first came to this little corner of the Bay of Marseilles in 1870, probably to escape a call-up for the Prussian war. L'Estaque was a place he came to paint and enjoy the open air. He would take his easel up to the hills, from where he painted twenty seven canvases, the most striking of which is Melting snow at l’Estaque.
Émile Zola (1840-1902). Émile Zola was a school friend of Paul Cézanne from Aix-en-Provence, and came to join him in l'Estaque in 1870. He was a political activist, and was involved in the launch of the newspaper 'La Marseillaise'. Although perhaps more associated with the North of France due to the success of his mining novel, Germinal, Zola came back to l'Estaque in summer 1877 and was inspired by local life for his novella Naïs Micoulin. When not writing, he took dips in the sea and enjoyed good food. During that summer, he wrote to his friend Huysmans that "the animal in [me] is extremely happy".
Georges Braque (1882-1963). Twenty years later, it was the fauvists that discovered l'Estaque. Georges Braque first came to the village in 1906, the year of Cézanne's death. He was an admirer of Cézanne and initially followed in his footsteps, before working with more simplified forms and vivid colours, in a style that came to be known as fauvism. He went as far as saying that "my first paintings in l’Estaque had already been conceived before I left to go there." His stay in the winter of 1906-07 was his most "fauvist" time. For Port of l’Estaque, he went so far as to plant his easel exactly where Cézanne had painted. Cézanne's Houses in Provence became Braque's Houses at l’Estaque. The latter was the first ever cubist painting.
Raoul Dufy (1877-1953). Another lover of the Mediterranean light was Dufy, who was born in Le Havre. He, like Braque before him, painted the fishing port and landing stage as well as the Chateau Fallet. Whilst others took in wide sweeps of landscape, Dufy focused in on close-up details, such as trees, statues or architectural features. He also turned his gaze on the industrial side of life, as would film director Robert Guédiguian, a hundred years later.
Robert Guédiguian was born in Marseilles in December 1953, son of an Armenian docker and a German mother. From 1980, this local filmmaker, as he likes to describe himself, has shot almost all his movies around his childhood home in l'Estaque. After becoming disillusioned by his politics, Guédiguian has since tried to use cinema as a way to communicate his socially-engaged ideas. He is loyally supported by a team comprising his wife and muse, Ariane Ascaride, Gérard Meylan and Jean-Pierre Daroussin. A la Vie, à la Mort ! is a tale of solidarity, and La Ville est Tranquille a depiction of working class struggles. He is the latest in a long line of realist auteur-filmmakers, with an eye for ordinary people. He caught the public's attention in 1998 with Marius et Jeannette, a working class romance set in l'Estaque. His most recent film Lady Jane also offers glimpses of l'Estaque's winding streets and little squares.
The tourist board has designed an enjoyable "Painter's Trail" walking tour, which starts at the fishing port, and takes visitors around the locations that inspired the artists. There are eight information panels giving further background details at each place of interest.
