Watch Discovering Provence Marseille and Toulon

Marseille and Toulon are both cities of the sea, on the mid-Mediterranean coast. The sea brought them power and disaster, the wealth of commerce and the misery of piracy and disease. Throughout their histories, the two cities shared the ugliness of the penal settlements, the beauty of Pierre Puget's artistic contributions, the calamity of the great plague, the rigours of the German occupation, and finally the affluence and prosperity of the post-war years. Today they are popular tourist destinations providing the local fish dish bouillabaisse. And the sea provides the perfect location for training courses in deep-sea saturation diving. Greek Marseille and its legendary foundations; the carnival of Marseille The Roman siege of Massilia and its final defeat by Rome Origins of Toulon and the fortress of Chateau d'If Marseille galleys, its arsenal and the chiourme Arsenal transferred to Toulon; its penal settlement is the bagne Art of Pierre Puget and the Vieille Charite; Fort St Nicholas and Fort St John The 1720 bubonic plague ravages Marseille and Toulon Marseille soap manufacture 18th century Marseille, revolution and the origin of the Marseillaise From the belle epoque to Marseille and Toulon today Making the bouillabaisse, the Provencal fish soup Comex and the hyperbaric diving school in Marseille