What is it all about?

The educational initiative ‘Les enfants enchantent Marseille’ will enable children from Marseille and the surrounding area to reclaim the city’s public spaces, natural areas and cultural venues for educational, artistic and civic activities.

These activities could take place outdoors, in a playground, a park, an educational garden, a beach, a square, a street, or ‘outside the walls’ in Marseille’s artistic, cultural and scientific venues.

The project cannot be carried out without the participation of citizens of goodwill, associations and public organisations. It is based in particular on cooperation between the Fabrique des Communs Pédagogiques, the City of Marseille, the Académie d’Aix-Marseille and the Ligue de l’Enseignement.

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 In June 2023, the children enchanted the Poitiers city centre…

In the city, children’s rights are a compass that leads to a fairer, more inclusive society.

And what if the city at children’s level was a city where children were teachers, researchers, architects, artists, journalists, lawyers and defenders of peace? For a week, Marseille will be letting children sketch the city.

And what if…
Streets were renamed with surprising names…
Facades were repainted in cheerful colours.
Installations were planted on the pavements, including giant bamboo mikados.

A slide descended from the first floor to the delight of the children… and the grown-ups who dared to venture down it!

Outdoor classes were held in a shop, a public establishment (museum, theatre, library, etc.), a corner of the park, in the street, etc.

The children told passers-by about the history of the streets, buildings and personalities who had lived there, and invented what they would say about it in a hundred years’ time.
A green farandole was traced on the ground to link the smallest ‘green spaces’.

The road signs were replaced by new ones to regulate routes and traffic differently, at children’s level.

Advertising posters were hijacked.

Participatory workcamps were set up to propose new public amenities.

Huts were built in the squares and streets.

Most of the parking spaces were occupied by groups of pupils who exhibited their discoveries: here a herbarium of the city, there a presentation of the animals that live in the folds of the city…

At lunchtime, an impromptu picnic was held for young and old alike.

At the end of the day, several trees were planted by the children, who recited poems specially written by them for the occasion.

One class acted out a public debate, dramatising the ‘participation of local residents’ with humour and derision.

 … AND IN MAY 2025, THEY WILL ENCHANT MARSEILLE



Marseille, a city for children

The activities taking place during ‘Les enfants enchantent Marseille’ can take place anywhere in the city, in locations that are close to or accessible by public transport for classes and groups of children and their carers.



ITS EMBLEMATIC LOCATIONS SPONSORED BY CHILDREN

The sites will be patroned by classes and groups of children. For each sponsored site, the classes will be asked to work with the people who live there (other children, local authority staff, community groups, residents and artists) to put together a programme for the site that is both artistic and joyful, and that relates to the issues that run through it (the place of nature, warmth, inclusion, etc.). This patronage is intended to be extended over time (at least one year per group of children). The choice of location for the activities will be made in consultation with the participants and will be based on a map of Marseille at the level of the children and the proposed locations to be sponsored. The activities will take place in all of the city’s public, natural and cultural spaces, including :



• Educational gardens

• Parks (e.g. Bougainville, 26th centenary)

• Natural areas (e.g. Calanques, Beaches)

• Squares and streets (e.g. Place Castellane)

• Third places (e.g. 8 Pillards, La Friche belle de Mai)

• Museums (e.g. MUCEM, Musée d’Histoire de Marseille)

• Cultural spaces (e.g. the Opéra, La Citadelle)

• Heritage buildings and municipal facilities (e.g. La Caserne du Muy, Château de la Buzine)

• My choice of venue

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Activities

ideas by the thousand

  • Teachers, activity leaders, educators and all our partners can put forward their own ideas for activities. What’s more, the Fabrique des Communs Pédagogiques is offering a number of activities in line with the themes of the professional meetings and in conjunction with partners or other classes or groups of children, which volunteer schools and educational establishments can also take up.

  • We’ve paid particular attention to artistic and cultural practices, to feed into future editions of the 4 seasons of the outdoor classroom.


Children’s activities that enchant Marseille


  • • Public events: In order to inaugurate the sponsorship of places by children in the city of Marseille, they will be invited to propose events (theater, dance, singing, presentations, exhibitions, farandoles, etc.).

  • • Sharing practices: Children share with other classes or groups of children a practice or activity carried out outside the walls, in particular in education for sustainable development and in artistic and cultural education.

  • • Educational walks: Children will be able to create educational walks to connect the sponsored spaces and thus draw educational frameworks in the city.

  • • Children’s assembly: Students and groups of children are questioned about their relationship with the city. They will be led to debate, imagine proposals to make the city at their level and to write their Marseillaise.

  • • Apprentice reporters: An invitation to produce reports in any form (newspaper, podcast, videos, drawings, etc.) to report on the event by meeting other classes.

  • • Read aloud in public spaces: Throughout public spaces, children and young people are invited to organize literary events by presenting a text of their choice to the public present and passers-by.

  • • Territorial health diagnosis (One Health): Schools in the Aix-Marseille Academy will be able to carry out a territorial health diagnosis near their schools.

  • • Conversation snack: At the invitation of historian and philosopher Theodore Zeldin, young people, in pairs, among themselves or with an adult, are invited to a conversation snack to meet others.

  • • School Night: School Night is about “making school” for a night inside and outside the walls, through an approach of education in the territory and awareness of the environment and biodiversity.

  • • And also, in a non-exhaustive manner: scientific missions, educational courses in the city of Marseille, environmental education workshops, building a cabin, participating in the management of a park or an educational garden, redesigning urban signage, trying out intermediate vehicles, organising a “transplant” class…

• Your own activity ideas

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