Marseille

Marseille is the second largest city in France. Located in the former province of Provence and on the Mediterranean sea, it is France's largest commercial port. (The English spelling "Marseilles" is falling out of usage).

It has a population of 807,071 (1999 census), and 1,516,340 for the wider Marseille-Aix-en-Provence urban area.

-The Old Harbor, Marseille -

Marseille is the préfecture (capital) of the Bouches-du-Rhône département.

Marseille was founded in 600 BC by Phoceans.

The French rap band IAM is from Marseille.

The most widely circulated tarot deck comes from Marseille; it is called the Tarot de Marseille, and was used to play the local variant of tarocchi before it came to the notice of people who used it in cartomancy.

The metro is rubber-tired.

The city's main football club is Olympique de Marseille[?], European Cup winner in 1993 but tainted by the 1990s match-fixing scandal by then owner Bernard Tapie[?].

Higlights

• The old harbor
• Notre-Dame de la Garde[?]
• Château d'If, an ancient prison island, where the The Count of Monte Cristo was jailed, in Alexandre Dumas' novel
• Unité d'Habitation de Marseille[?], by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier

Marseille was the birthplace of:

• Jean-Henry Gourgaud, aka. "Dugazon" (1746 - 1809), actor
• Etienne Joseph Louis Garnier-Pages (1801-1841), politician
• Joseph Pujol, aka. "Le Pétomane" (1857-1945), entertainer
• Edmond Rostand (1868-1918), poet and dramatist
• Fernandel (1903-1971), actor
• Zinedine Zidane (born 1972), soccer player

External links

• Marseille (http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/bouches/marseill/marseill.htm)
• Early history (http://www.ancientroute.com/cities/massilia.htm)
• Metro (http://www.metropla.net/eu/mar/marseil.htm)