Marseille, Port city on Mediterranean Sea, France
Marseille is a port city on the Mediterranean in southern France, spreading along a wide bay surrounded by hills. It divides into several districts, from the old harbor with its cafés to the tower blocks in the north and the coastal villas in the south.
Greek sailors founded the settlement in 600 BCE under the name Massalia, making it the first major trading harbor in the western Mediterranean. Later it became Roman, then a medieval independent republic before joining France in the 15th century.
Fishmongers sell their catch directly at the old harbor while families gather on the terraces along Quai des Belges to eat bouillabaisse and watch the gulls. In the narrow streets of the Panier district, laundry hangs between buildings and neighbors call to each other in Arabic, French, and other languages from their balconies.
The metro system connects the main districts through two lines, while buses reach further neighborhoods and beaches. Boats leave regularly from the old harbor to the islands offshore and to the calanques.
The Calanques National Park begins at the edge of town and consists of limestone cliffs stretching for kilometers along the coast. Narrow inlets cut deep into the rock and fill with clear seawater that shifts between blue and turquoise.
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