About provence

The MEDITERRANEAN, Marseilles, Cassis

The MEDITERRANEAN, Marseilles, Cassis Marseilles, the second city of France, settled on one of the most sumptuous bays in the world, is really worth a visit in spite of the bad reputation this sea port has since the Second World War.
The city offers a contrasting face looking sometimes like a huge metropolis and sometimes like a village. As the most ancient city of France, it teaches a lot about the history of Provence.
The Greeks founded the town in 600 BC and were followed by the Romans. A few ruins can still be seen.

The city, born from the sea, has kept its maritime and commercial vocation for 26 centuries. That's why Marseilles was considered as the gateway to the Orient and Africa, the gateway of the French Colonial Empire and it exhaled a perfume of exoticism.
Marseilles is the first commercial port in the Mediterranean Sea for its volume of traffic, fourth port of Europe, the town still presents a cosmopolitan nature.

Dominated by the church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde which watches over the people of Marseilles, the old Port, where the commercial and maritime activities took place until the 19th century, has been the witness to this history and is one of the most picturesque places of the city. On the South side of the Old Port, the Saint-Victor Abbey brings us back to the early Middle Ages, to the first Christians and to the time the Abbey was one of the most important of Occident.

Then, there is the fabulous "Corniche Kennedy" with its sumptuous 19th century houses and mansions of the upper merchant class. It provides a marvellous viewpoint to admire the island of "Chateau d'If" made famous by Alexandre Dumas in his novel "le Comte de Monte Cristo" and the "Frioul Islands" that lie close to the bay of Marseilles.

Nearby, the little fishing port of Cassis with its coloured facades and its amazing vineyards will be the ideal stop to end a perfect day in Provence tasting the excellent white wine produced in the area on one of the terraces of the Port. As the Provençal writer Frederic Mistral said about it "Anyone who has seen Paris, but not Cassis, hasn't seen anything".

No stop in Marseilles or Cassis is complete without seeing les Calanques, rocky inlets, a type of little fjords offering a stunning and fabulous unviolated countryside, unique in the world. Limestone cliffs plunge into a deep blue sea. Sormiou, Morgiou, Sugiton, En Vau, are a paradise to hike, climb and dive or simply swim.