Un Anglais à Marseille #16
Prof d’anglais et coursier à vélo à Marseille, Rory Launder livre son regard sur la ville tout en vous donnant une occasion de réviser votre anglais. Dans ce nouvel épisode, il raconte l’aventure des 100 Tours de la Plaine, transformés ce dimanche en 100 Tours de Sébastopol, en compagnie de leur créateur, Jacky Rustines.
Squeezing up Rue du Village I see a man in his fifties boot over a green and white free-floating hire bike that had previously been parked on the pedestrian crossing. It crashes loudly to the floor. The gentleman rebel seems satisfied with his work. ‘Free-floating’ is the term used for ‘libre service’ and reminds me of the disingenuous ‘cloud’. The cloud seems ephemeral. Light, floating, innocent, made of water. In reality, data stored on the cloud is just data saved on someone else’s server. Likewise, the hire bikes and scooters are not floating, they’re choking up public spaces. Not as much as parked cars, but anyway, that’s a discussion for another day.
I meet Jacky Rustines in the relative safety and quiet of Au Comptoir du Livre. Tucked away between rue St Pierre and Cours Ju it’s just off the main throughfares, the staff are lovely, and best of all it doesn’t smell of piss. The building opposite is unusual: a cascade of blue paint stains the wall under a window, and a post-feminist (?) “men don’t protect you anymore” graffiti written in English confuses me. Jacky wears one of those bobble hats without the bobble and complements his bulbous shaved legs with light pink socks pulled up nice and high.
I ask the cycling visionary how and why the 100 Tours de Plaine, how did it start? “While working as a pute-à-vélo for Deliveroo I started to turn around la Plaine after my shift before going to sleep. Sometimes I would just do a couple, other times maybe up to fifteen. After I would go to l’Intermédiaire to drink three pints on my own and to stare at Roman (who was a bouncer there, and with whom I was a bit in love at that time).”
“It was during one of these solo rides that I had the idea to create an event to do one-hundred laps without stopping, and to invite everyone that could to come. We were maybe twenty-five participants for the first event. Tomas from Road Art was the only person who did the one-hundred laps with me.” I ask Jacky to defend the use of the word pute “Well, we were badly paid, and we worked the night”.
“For the Tour du Mur I was astonished by the number of participants. It had gone too far! It had become political because there were revindications against the requalification of la Plaine. There was a choir that sang and rode, people were disguised in carnivalesque fancy dress. It was a very special time at la Plaine, there were running battles with police, the wall was being used as an open-air art gallery. There was a lot of focus on la Plaine and of course on the Rue d’Aubagne.
“The third edition was complicated by the complete transformation of la Plaine. The rectangle had been removed, the seating for the bars had been greatly increased (thanks to covid). We made the one-hundred laps, but of the centre of la Plaine, it was more of an oval around the children’s play area, the remaining trees, and the pagodas at the top. Law enforcement interrupted the event after a dozen laps. We had to wait it out before restarting after they had dispersed.”
The 100 Tours de Plaine were very emotional for all involved. My father (after doing sixty-nine laps for his sixty-nine years) said “It was the best thing I have done since I can remember”. Youcef of Allo Mécano Vélo ran the sound-system and the microphone. The seven-year-old daughter of the president of Vélos en Ville completed thirty-three laps. Legend has it that on the last lap with everyone shouting “It’s the last one!” the riders did not quite understand so continued on to do an extra final lap. My father having not yet finished his target also continued on. Only four more laps, despite my explaining that the event had finished. “I haven’t finished yet” he said.
The fourth edition (Place Sébastopol Sunday 29th October from 14.00) will be bittersweet for Mr Rustines as it will be his last. “It’s fundamental that the 100 Tours is in the pirate spirit, otherwise it’s not la Plaine. Maybe I will cry. Since I moved here seven years ago, I have always lived around la Plaine, it’s my quartier, my playground. To organise a final event, this time at the Place Sébastopol is the best way for me to say goodbye to Marseille. I have organised various events over the years, alleycats, parties, etc. The 100 Tours is the event of which I am most proud. It’s my baby.”
Rory Launder
Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/1rPCbUrNX
Rory Launder www.instagram.com/un_anglais_a_marseille