• Visitors
  • Travel trade
  • Press
  • Groups
  • Convention Bureau
les-goudes-baie-des-singes-passage-des-croisettesjoyanaotcm.jpg

Get lost at les Goudes: discover the origin of this Marseille expression

  1. Homepage
  2. Blog Marseille
  3. Get lost at les Goudes: discover the origin of this Marseille expression

The Marseille’s dialect is full of colourful expressions. Have you just been invited to throw yourself/get lost into Les Goudes? Find out what this unflattering suggestion means!

Virginie-Vigoureux-Digital.jpg
Virginie Verdi
  • Marseille in 3 words

    Solar, contradictory, bubbling.

  • My favourite neighbourhood

    The Castellane district. Always lively even on Sundays. You can have a drink with friends, have a coffee before going to work or stroll around the market on Saturday morning.

Les Goudes district

les-goudes-coucher-de-soleil-sanaomtcm.jpg

    Just south of Marseille, Les Goudes district is the last stop before Callelongue, which is truly the end of the world for Marseillais. This fishing village offers a foretaste of paradise, with its quiet little port, secret coves and paths winding through the valleys and ridges of the Calanques. Literally overrun during the summer season, it regains its calm from autumn to early spring.

    But did you know that in the 19th century, this village was home to industries and fortifications? That its inhabitants witnessed the sinking of the Liban, one of Provence’s most terrible maritime disasters? A guided tour of Les Goudes will reveal all the secrets of this peaceful district with its rather eventful history.

    Get lost at the Goudes! an unsympathetic suggestion

    goudes-jootcm-46.jpeg

      As you can see, the village of Les Goudes is an enchanting place well worth a visit. But the expression ‘Va te jeter aux Goudes’ is not as flattering as the proposed destination. In simpler terms, your interlocutor is simply inviting you to get out of the way. In reality, it’s all about the tone you use. Preceded by an ‘Eh’ and pronounced with emphasis, it takes on a more affectionate dimension.

      But why Les Goudes? This wild, isolated area, with its coves and cliffs, is the ideal place to disappear into the distance. The road is dead-end, and there’s a whiff of elsewhere here. Italy? Greece? You’re not really in Marseille any more, so you’re far enough away from the person who invited you to go far away.

      Other sources claim that people used to come to Les Goudes to dispose of unwanted bodies. But this sulphurous reputation is perhaps linked to the nearby Cap Croisette, whose currents and shallows have trapped many a ship.

      Close