after hearing so much about the fish market at marseille's old port, i was expecting something far…read moremore grandiose, along the lines of tokyo's tsukiji, perhaps. but when i scanned the quai des belges from my hotel balcony at around 7:30 this morning (the market opens at 8), i came to the conclusion that the fish market must be closed because i saw no signs of life there. lo, individual fishmongers gradually appeared and set up shop from 8 onwards, and by 9 or so there were a good dozen or so of them offering up some very fresh (some still alive and flopping around) denizens of the mediterannean sea. a tv crew filming something about a grisly old timer hawking mollusks added to the atmosphere, and i couldn't help but think that if i actually lived in marseille, this would be where i came to get my fresh fish. still, i couldn't help but get the impression that the heyday of this well-known fish market had long since passed.