New York Restaurant, Marseilles, France, 1977

Notes from the collector: Located on the head of the Old Port about fifty feet from the fishmongers with their fresh catch of seafood. The restaurant was primarily a seafood place and actually had one person going around the dining room helping customers open their oysters, crack their crabs, shell their lobster, etc. It was in 1977, we stayed just yards away at a hotel overlooking the port with a view to the unfolding dramas on the sidewalk. The first night a couple of men were seen to be arguing by the cafe in front of the hotel. One picked up a table umbrella and stabbed the other fatally. The police arrived in some sort of van, opened the rear doors and threw the dead man in rather roughly. Who needs television on holiday. My wife had bouillabaisse by the way later in the cafe.