Last modified: 2004-07-17 by ivan sache
Keywords: marseilles | yacht club | cross (blue) | star (white) | stars: 2 (white) | crown (yellow) | anchor: fouled (red) |
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The Vieux-Port (Old-Port) of Marseilles is the historical port of the city and one of the main emblematic places of the city, along with the Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde church (la Bonne Mère), the Stade Vélodrome and the Canebière street.
The Vieux-Port is a narrow, U-shaped basin (600 x 200 m), protected by an even smaller bottleneck placed under the protection of the St. John and St. Nicholas fort. It is more or less the place where the colons from Asia Minor landed c. 600 BP. In the Middle Ages, the marshes located at the end of the port were transformed into hempen field, called in French chènevière, from chanvre, hemp. Hemp was spun to make rigging. The hempen fields have disappeared but the street which links the Vieux-Port to the center of the city has kept the name of Canebière. The Vieux-Port remained the center of the maritime activity in Marseilles until the XIXth century, when it was deemed to shallow (6 meters) for the big ships. A new port was built in the borough of La Joliette, where the ferry and container activity is located today. The Vieux-Port is only used by fishers, yachtmen and the local lines towards the islands of the Frioul and If.
Several yacht clubs and fishers' associations have kept their club house in the Vieux-Port. The big clubs, such as the CNTL and the SNM, have huge floating clubhouses with restaurants, lounges and several other facilities, whereas the smallest ones have a few moorings and a small wooden club-house built on the quay.
Part 1 of this series shall describe the yacht clubs located on the Quai de Rive-Neuve - south, on left hand when looking at the sea, where the former arsenal was built.
Ivan Sache, 13 December 2003