Château de La Buzine

Back to Bouches du Rhône

I am devoted to the works of Marcel Pagnol, who grew up in the suburbs of Marseille and the countryside behind the town.
In Le Château de ma Mère he describes the long and painful journey from the family home to their holiday cottage.
His mother was frail, and the walk was long. However, a former pupil of Marcel's father, who worked on
the irrigation canal, showed them a short cut along the canal through the grounds of various large estates.
In one of them they were made most unwelcome, but the friendly canal-keeper saved them from trouble.
In another, they were warmly welcomed every time they passed. It was to this that Marcel referred
as his mother's castle. Many years later, long after the early death of his mother, Marcel, now
a doyen of the French cinema, bought, sight unseen, a château in the south of France
with the intention of creating a French Hollywood. When he came to take possession,
he realised that he had bought his mother's château.

Alas, the second world war shattered the dream of a French Hollywood, and the chéteau gradually deteriorated
until Marseilles Council bought it, restored it and made it into a Marcel Pagnol museum. It's also an Arts Centre,
and incorporates – Marcel would have loved this touch – a nursery school.

Back to Bouches du Rhône