“Here there was nothing, only fields as far as the eye could see. Even the school did not exist, we were in the middle of the countryside“, remembers Abdelah, exactly 60 years old, his gaze fixed on the hills. This corner of greenery, as if cut off from the rest of the city, it’s hard to imagine that today it’s… the Charrel.
This district of 992 housing units managed by the social landlord Érilia is celebrating its 50th anniversary this Saturday. An opportunity for residents to look back on five decades of history marked by an often negative external perception.
In 1974, it was first the workers from Aubagne who settled there.The area was close to factories, so the bosses housed their workers there.“, remembers Marguerite, one of the oldest residents of the neighborhood at the age of 101.
But there was also the contingent of gendarmes who lived in building Q. And already the same prejudices about Charrel which still stick to him today.
Greenery and solidarity
“When I told people that I lived in Charrel, they were surprised and told me that it was as dangerous as Chicago.“, breathes the centenarian, wrapped up in a bathrobe.
A comparison that comes up a lot in the memories of the inhabitants. With an OM jersey on his chest, Marc Giorgi is part of the walls. The Aubagnais put down his suitcases in the residence one morning in the year 1985 and, since then, has not changed apartments.
“People judge this neighborhood without knowing it, only by what they hear from the outside. Chicago? We are still far from it!“, protests Marc Giorgi, he who managed the tenants’ association for years.
He remembers on the contrary “evenings of sharing, solidarity… a small village in the city“. But as is often the case, the positive aspects struggle to penetrate the limits of the neighborhood.
