I might have been on the 6 o'clock news

It began as a relatively normal tour of Marseille.  I've given it enough times now that I've got the route down pat.  I explain why there are giraffes all over the city.  I introduce the newcomers to the metro and tram system.  I show them touristy areas as well as work areas.  I take them by the Arab market in Noailles so they know the best place to get fruits and vegetables.  I end at the Vieux Port.  It began as all other tours do...normal.

...and then we went into Noailles, where normal gets left behind as soon as one crosses the street from France into North Africa.

The woman on my tour were all taking photos of the produce market and one was actually buying some produce.  I was waiting for them down at the end of the market near the guy who sells fresh mint (for 50 cents for a huge bundle!), when I noticed the crowd.

There was a huge crowd in the butcher, as well as outside the butchers.  As I noticed the crowd, I also began to notice the press throughout the crowd: the large video cameras, the news channel microphones, the crane for the overhead mic.

Something was happening at the butcher's, and it was going to be on the six o'clock news.  Hmmm...

I remembered the time that I saw the prime minister on the metro, and thought, could he be at the butcher in Noailles?  No, surely not.  I craned to see who was in there, and caught a glimpse of a bright red jacket.  The red jacket was slowly registering in my head when my tour group came back up to me to ask what was going on.  As I began to explain what I thought could be happening, I noticed the crowd turning, (including the press), and I thought... "I don't want to be on the six o'clock news.  Not with my accent.  No."

Before I could turn my tour group around to leave the area, the woman in the red jacket approached us.

"Hello, I'm S**ia G****, and I'm running for mayor of Marseille."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am, but we're not French."

"Oh, are you tourists?  Welcome to Marseille!" As she proceeded to shake every single hand in my tour group, talking to them about the platforms of her campaign, I explained, "Madame, they don't speak French...at all."

"Oh.  Well, you can translate for me, then.  Tell them..." and she went on talking about why the French should vote for her.  She gave them some flyers with more information about herself and her political campaign and then moved on to another shop in Noailles, and the majority of the crowd followed her.

However, some of the crowd, after she left, immediately began to argue about her.  You see, she's North African descent, and she grew up in the rough neighborhoods in the north part of the city.  (Which explains why she was campaigning in Noailles.)  She brags that she got her education on the streets.  Some people think she's not really qualified to serve in politics, and some of her campaign platforms/strategies have been frowned upon.  Me...I'm politically indifferent because it's not my country.  (I also don't want a google search to pull up my blog when people look her up, which is why I didn't include her name above.)

So as some people began to argue about her, the arguments quickly turned physical.  When I saw one woman beat a man over the head with a newspaper, I knew it was time to lead my tour group out of Noailles and back to normal world.  They sure did have quite the experience during their introductory tour of the city: being personally welcome to Marseille by a political candidate and seeing a fight break out immediately afterwards!

The first round of voting was yesterday, and turns out that Madame G**** lost.  Things might have gotten real interesting round here had she won.  But from what I saw the other day, and from what several French people have told me, it's probably a good thing she didn't.

Since I don't have a television, I wasn't able to watch and see if I made the news or not.  Oh well.