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The one and only
You reach the harbour and you are already a part of its history and that constant feeling of urban insurrection. The history of Marseilles began with a passionate love story, when Protis from Phocaea, a town in Asia Minor, married Gyptis, a Ligurian princess, against her father’s wishes. This set the tone for the future.
The legend of the foundation of Marseilles confirms its cultural mix. 
Its emblem, the silhouette of the “Bonne Mère”, inseparable from the image of the town, tells of the mixture of civilisations.
It was in the 6th century B.C. that the first “Dame de Garde” appeared in Marseilles; indeed, although tradition likes to claim that the first appearance was in prehistoric times, a female guard on the hill can be traced with certainty back to the time of the Phocaeans. The site was to house the temple of the goddess of the city of Phocaea, Aphrodite, and thus guard the fire of the city.
The name of Our Lady “de la Garde” therefore apparently comes from this idea of a guarding place for the sacred fire. Then, Christianity took over the pagan places of worship to turn them into its own. The construction of the basilica in 1853 gave the De la Garde hill its full meaning: sacred signal, urban signal. And, what’s more, a landmark for sailors.
The Phocaeans also left us the “bouillabaisse”, a mixture of rockfish and sea fish… At the time the population ate a simple stew of fish called the kakavia. Initially, the bouillabaisse was a modest dish, prepared with leftovers and unsold fish and eaten first of all by fishermen; this enhanced soup was therefore originally a “poor man’s dish”!
Go past the two Vauban fortresses and the history of Marseilles continues. Still passionate, Marseilles was to have its royal fortresses but the gunboats would be the only ones turned towards the town.
And, well before Colbert decided that Toulon would be a port for wartime and that the monopole of the French commercial relations with the ex-Ottoman empire would be given to Marseilles, it was considered by the whole world as a “Marseilles Republic” in the 13th century and set the tone for a long struggle in order to win a place in the trade between the West and the East.
After the fortresses, to starboard, there’s the Saint Victor Abbey, living proof of the first “churches” … There, Marseilles was inscribed in the dawn of Christianity and, once again, a passionate time.
It was on the cusp of the 4th century, when the Roman empire was evangelised, that in February 303, systematic and generalised persecution broke out suddenly and abruptly. Victor, refusing to “make sacrifices to false gods”, was the first Martyr of the persecution. The Christians in Marseilles stole his body and hid it in haste on the hillside where they dug out the rock; the foundations of the Saint Victor Abbey were laid.
There are several marks of the reverence and worship of this early Christian age in the crypts where the graves were venerated and decorated with small columns, sculptures, engravings, biblical characters, monograms of the Christ.
Go towards the end of the harbour and you’ll come across the “Nautique”. For the people of Marseilles, using this lake, going to the islands or to the creeks is natural to them, and the importance of pleasure boating and the regatta is inborn… With the third club in France after the Société des Régates du Havre (1838) and the Société Nautique de Sète (1863), the Nautique (1887) is an old yet eternally youthful club, founded by dissident regatta members of the Société des Régates de Marseille.
Opposite, the Canebière continues to set the seaside tone of the town… the avenue bears the name of the hemp woven there for the rigging, and not far from there, there is also the avenue de la Corderie (Rope avenue)…
Go down opposite the former Auction house, now the Opera, and enter the Place aux huiles (Square of oils)… The buildings lining it still have the vaults and arched doorways… However, you won’t find oils there, but rosé wine and in particular “Pastis”, a mixture of star anise from Yunnan (China), a hint of liquorice from the Syrian banks of the Euphrates, and aromatic herbs of Provence…
On the other side of the harbour, try the cool narrow streets of the Panier; perched on a small hill, this is the original district of the successive waves of immigration, from the Greeks to those from the Comoros. Everything is picturesque there including the names of the streets and the attitude of its residents. Wandering aimlessly along the streets is still the best way to visit this little village within the town. A real maze, but in Marseilles you can’t get lost, because you never lose sight of the sea for long.
- Anne Imbert
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