France's oldest city and wildest port — founded by Greeks in 600 BCE, where Bouillabaisse was invented, the Calanques cliffs drop straight into turquoise water, and the MuCEM museum hangs off a 16th-century sea fort
Marseille is France's second-largest city (870,000) and largest port on the Mediterranean, founded as Massalia by Greek colonists from Phocaea (in modern Turkey) around 600 BCE — making it France's oldest city by 2,000 years. The Vieux-Port (Old Port) is the city's living centre — a rectangular harbour where daily fish markets, restaurant terraces, and the ferry to Château d'If convene beneath the landmark Fort Saint-Nicolas. The Calanques — 20km of sheer white limestone cliffs with turquoise inlets, a National Park since 2012 — stretch east from the city and are accessible by boat, kayak, or…
Massalia was founded c. 600 BCE by Greek colonists and became one of the most prosperous trading cities of the ancient Mediterranean — exporting olive oil and wine to Gaul and importing tin from Britain. Julius Caesar besieged and sacked it in 49 BCE for supporting Pompey. The city was a major crusade embarkation point (1248, Louis IX's Seventh Crusade departed from here). The 'Marseillaise' — the French national anthem — was written in Strasbourg in 1792 but performed first in Marseille, where it was copied, distributed, and carried to Paris by Marseille volunteers in July 1792 (hence the na…