Living · 5 min

A Summer Behind Half-Closed Shutters

Summer in Marseille has its own rhythm. In the morning you catch the light, at noon you shut out the heat, in the evening you open everything to the wind again. In our Maison, behind half-closed shutters, it stays cool and dim while the city glows outside. And when the longing for salt comes, the sea is only a short walk away.

Cool behind the shutters

Old houses know how to handle heat. Thick walls, high rooms, shutters you close in the morning. Inside the light turns soft and golden, the lime plaster stays cool, the tomettes are pleasantly hard underfoot. You live more slowly, in half-shade, and the heat stays where it belongs, outside.

Terracotta, linen, summer

The colours of the apartment are the colours of summer, sand, terracotta, the off-white of linen. A jug of water on the table, fruit in a ceramic bowl, the velvet curtains in waves. It takes little to feel held, when the things are real.

Out to the water

And then the short way out. From here the beaches are quick to reach, the Plage des Catalans in the middle of the city or the Calanques further out. A towel, a book, and the afternoon belongs to the salt. In the evening back to the cool Maison, that is summer as it should be.