L’Estaque today is a fairly unprepossessing place and for those looking for a conventionally attractive fishing village, it would be quickly dismissed. Creeping development and industrialisation from Marseille has now absorbed the community but it still clings on to vestiges of its former identity. Turn back the clock a hundred years or so and it was a very different place – a modest fishing port squeezed into a narrow coastal strip with the waters of the Bay of Marseille on one side and the wild hills of the Chaine de l’Estaque on the other.

The village was largely devoted to fishing and nothing much changed until the arrival of the railway in 1848 which dramatically improved connections with Marseille and Miramas. It wasn’t long before the first factories manufacturing bricks and tiles were established and these were followed by other enterprises involved in the production of sodium salts and sulphuric acid. The railway station is a remarkable survival from those early days and is a wonderful confection of glass and metalwork. The population expanded and the place became popular with the wealthy citizens of Marseille, both for seafood in the harbourside restaurants and for summer retreats from the heat and bustle of the city. Many grand villas were built and many of these architectural flights of fancy still survive. Servicing the needs of pleasure boating has now largely replaced fishing as the principal activity in the town and the waterfront is lined with thousands of yachts and other craft.

The first notable artist to discover the charms of L’Estaque was Felix Ziem and although he travelled extensively around the world he settled in Martigues, just along the coast, in 1861 and spent the rest of his life painting this area of Provence. Today many of his paintings can be seen at the Musée Ziem in Martigues.

It was in 1864 that Cézanne first visited L’Estaque and he would return many times, usually staying at a house next to the church on Place Malterre. At that time the village was just beginning to grow with new industry and evidence of this is to be found in his paintings. It was part of the creed of the Impressionists to paint life as it really was and maybe it was this slightly uncomfortable juxtaposition of the monumental and untamed elements of the natural world, sea, sky and mountain, with the artifical works of man that stimulated the creative process. Cézanne had explored similar subjects with his friend Pissarro in Pontoise, close to Paris, where the railway had brought new industries to what had been a quiet rural town. In 1876 he wrote to his friend describing L’Estaque as being ‘like a playing card. Red roofs over the blue sea ... The sun here is so terrific that objects appear silhouetted not only in white or black, but in blue, red, brown, violet.’ These could almost be the words of one of the ‘wild beasts’ of the Fauve movement, many of whom would follow in Cézanne’s footsteps to L’Estaque. It was not just an exercise in painting the reality in front of him but exploring the effects of light and colour that led him to create over 60 canvases of the area and pushed painting beyond Impressionism in new directions. Renoir visited in 1882 and he and Cézanne painted together, setting up their easels side-by-side to paint the wild hills behind the town. Eventually Cézanne tired of the increasing industrialisation, perhaps the combination of natural and man-made elements were no longer in a balance that facilitated his creative process.

Where Cézanne had led, other artists important in the development of painting in the twentieth century would follow. The German Expressionist August Macke spent some time in the town and in 1905 André Derain who was at that time working with Henri Matisse in a style later christened Fauvism, found L’Estaque to be a suitable vehicle for his bold and innovative use of non-representational colour. A series of paintings followed over the next few years and his fellow-Fauves, Georges Braque, Emile-Othon Friesz, Raoul Dufy and Albert Marquet all found inspiration here. The area around L’Estaque provided Braque with subjects that would see his style develop from Fauvism towards Cubism, yet another milestone in the history of art to be found in this shabby little seaside town.

One other artist worth mentioning is Adolphe Monticelli who was born in Marseille in 1855. Although not such a pivotal character as Cézanne, Derain or Braque, he was an important chronicler of the area in many paintings, some of which were to be seen in a gallery housed in a nineteenth century fortification at the western end of the town. Regretably the gallery is now closed but the Fortin de Corbières is still worth a visit for the panoramic views. The huge expanse of the bay partly enclosed by rugged limestone cliffs, mountains beyond and the islands of Frioul almost give L’Estaque the appearance of being on the rim of a cauldron, which is quite an appropriate allusion to the creative alchemy that went on here for several decades.

HOW TO GET TO L’ESTAQUE

It is assumed that Marseille will be the base for exploring L’Estaque. Marseille is well-served by air services from the UK including daily flights from London Heathrow (British Airways), London Gatwick (Easy Jet) and London Stansted (Ryanair). There are frequent high-speed rail services from Paris Gare de Lyon with a journey time of approximately 3 hours 20 minutes. It is perfectly possible to travel from London to Marseille by Eurostar to Paris and then TGV with a total journey time of approximately 6 hours 30 minutes.

By train from Marseille
L’Estaque is only a short ride from Marseille Saint-Charles and there are frequent services. The railway station is about 10 minutes walk from the waterfront (downhill).

By car from Marseille
Take the A55 from Place de la Joliette along Quai du Lazaret and follow directions for L’Estaque. This will take you through the commercial port area of the city. Continue along the A55 which will become the Chemin du Littoral until a left turn onto the D5 in the direction of L’Estaque. At a roundabout take the D568 and continue along the Chemin du Littoral and this will bring you into L’Etsaque.

By bus from Marseille
Line 35 from Place de la Joliette.

Tourist information
Villa Mistral, 122 Plage de l’Estaque, 13016 Marseille
Tel: 04.91.03.60.77
Website: www.estaque.com
Open: Only in July and August, check for exact times


ART GALLERY

Fondation Monticelli
A private museum was opened in 2010 housed in a nineteenth century fortification and dedicated to the work of Adolphe Monticelli, a significant pre-Impressionist painter local to the area. Regretably the museum closed its doors in 2015 but the magnificent views from the terrace are still worth a visit.
Fortin de Corbières, Route du Rove, RN 568, L’Estaque, 13016 Marseille