With spring came mellow sunny days, pleasant showers and gentle breezes that wafted inland from the deep blue Mediterranean Sea. Such clement weather was, though, prone to the unpredictable Mistrau wind but that raged only for a day or so before retreating to the upper Rhône valley whence it rose. The hardy populace of Marseilles paid it little heed. They preferred to get on with their lives, to earn enough to eat and drink by either honest or dishonest means. Some prospered, some failed; for every man who fell foul of the law, another evaded apprehension; for every meddlesome spinster with tales of despair and woe exchanged with neighbours across balconies, there was a tender-hearted mother who did not have a bad word to speak of anyone. Just as the city – was it different elsewhere? – bo
