STOPOVER IN MARSEILLE
A multifaceted committed city.
What to see and do to not miss anything of the essentials of Marseille?
Discover the must-see places that contribute to its influence, with more than 26 centuries of history. Sea side with the Calanques National Park, Frioul Islands, beaches and hiking, and city side with culture, heritage, culinary specialties and traditions. Formed in the heart of a natural creek more than 2,600 years ago, the city of Marseille has survived the centuries and today offers architectural treasures from various eras. Marseille covers 240 km² including 100 km² of natural spaces and the must-see sites are located in the four corners of the city.
Marseille sea view.
57 kilometers of coastline, 21 beaches, islands, coves with turquoise water and diving ranked among the most beautiful in the world, Marseille has sea views all year round and invites you to discover the Mediterranean, its Mediterranean.
But Marseille is also full of other facets but shhhh It's a secret.
"I was born in Marseille. Of Italian father and Spanish mother. One of these crossings of which the city has the secret. Being born in Marseille is never a coincidence. Marseille is, has always been, the port of exiles, Mediterranean exiles, exile from our former colonial roads too. Here, whoever arrives one day on the port, he is necessarily at home. Wherever you come from, you are at home in Marseille. In the streets, we meet familiar faces, familiar smells. Marseille is familiar. From the first glance.
That's why I love this city, my city. It is beautiful for this familiarity which is like bread to be shared between all. She is beautiful only out of humanity. The rest is chauvinism. Beautiful cities, with beautiful monuments, there are plenty of them in Europe. Beautiful rades, beautiful bays, magnificent ports, there are plenty of them in the world. I am not a chauvinist. I am from Marseille. That is to say, from here, passionately, and from all the elsewhere at the same time. Marseille is my culture of the world. My first education in the world.
It is by these ancient navigation routes, to the East, Africa, then to the Americas, these real routes for some of us, dreamed for most of others, that Marseille lives, wherever we go. Paris is an attraction. Marseille is a passport. When I'm away, and it happens to me often, I think of Marseille without nostalgia. But with the same emotion as for the beloved woman, abandoned for a trip, and who we want to find more and more as the days pass.
I believe in this, in what I learned in the streets of Marseille, and which sticks to my skin: welcome, tolerance, respect for others, uncompromising friendship and fidelity, this essential quality of love. (...)
I like to believe - because I was raised that way - that Marseille, my city, is not an end in itself. But only an open door. On the world, on others. A door that would always remain open. »
Marseille, Jean-Claude IZZO.
