the town

MARSEILLES

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The History of Marseille goes back a long long way, 2600 years to be exact, the marseillais pride themselves in the fact that it is the oldest town in France, many an interesting place is to be found in Marseilles, but you'll have to keep your eyes wide open because they're not the most obvious things to find. This isn't helped by the fact that Marseille was destroyed (2500 mines) during the second world war and that many of it's beauties where left in ruins.

You can see some old photos on this site

The old port (or vieux port) with it's wonderful array of boats, restaurants and cafés, this is where you want to be on a nice warm evening, take your apperatif (pastis of course) in the OM café (the football team's official café) then stroll down to the place thiars or to one of the restaurants on the north bank. (see Restaurants) Two castles protect the port, the fort St Jean and the fort St Nicolas you can't visit either of them (the fort St Nicolas is home to the army). There's also a little ferry boat that's called the Cesar, on their site you can get a look at the captains

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Anyway here's a bit of history

600 000 bc GROTTE De L'ESCALE SAINT-ESTEVE JANSON
20 000 bc GROTTE HENRI COSQUER
600 bc the greeks or phocaeans arrive, Marseilles at this time was called Massilia (or Massalia), they quickly develop the city's commerce, and encourage and develop the coast's beauty plus other mediteranean towns like nice, etc.. The ruins found in the "jardin des Vestiges", are the living proof of their ancient port.
1st century bc the Romans take control of Massilia, called upon by the people to save them from the Celtes. The Romans not only save them but by 122 bc manage to take over the whole of the south of France.
1st century bc where Cesar beats Pompee, Marseille decides to back Pompee (bad choice) and is held under seige until 49 bc. Cesar took away boats, jewels, money and gave it all to the neighbouring towns.
the crusades helped the city's finances enormously, Marseilles played an important role.
III - V century Christianism arrived, the first monasteries where constructed and amongst them the Saint-Victor.
In 476 the Roman empire fell. Marseilles witnessed the passage of the Barbarians : the Wisigoths , the Burgondes and the Ostrogoths (all of germanique origines)

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