 
|
Tour
of La Ciotat
Small city between Toulon and Marseilles, La Ciotat, because
of its
exceptional geographical situation, always knew how to attract
and charm everybody
Already, long time before the arrival of the Greeks, between
3000 and 2000 BC,
sedentary tribes had elected residence in the Gulf of Love
and the first trading post for the ancient sailors dates from
the 5th Century BC. |
|
The
city is surrounded by very beautiful creeks (creeks of Figuerolles
and Mugel) and by a hill housing the highest cliffs of Europe
(394 m; take the "Route des Crêtes"), on west
side. In the center, the small picturesque fishing port homes
every summer's evening, many animated fairground stalls. The city
is dominated by the bell-tower of the old Town Hall (1863) and
by Notre-Dame de l'Assomption (17th century). Before the great
beach, the marina can shelter 900 places. On the east side, along
a 20 km littoral, the Gulf of Love offers many sandy and shingly
beaches. |
| Located
only 420 meters from the continent (10 mn by shuttle-boat
from the Old Port), the "Ile Verte" (Green Island)
acts as natural barrier. It is the only wooded island
of the department (Alep pines, holm oaks, wild olive-trees…).
It offers an exceptional natural and historical inheritance,
living testimony from a still preserved Mediterranean
littoral. |
|
|
|
Sea-beds
of the Gulf of La Ciotat offer an extraordinary panorama of Mediterranean
fauna and flora (gorgons, sars, rainbow wrasses, scorpion fish,
octopuses, groupers, dentis, lobsters, sea-breams…). Diving
is practised there all along the year. La Ciotat houses also a
regional marine park.
Here you'll find all sports or leisures activities worthy of the
greatest seaside resorts: casino, sailing, windsurfing, water
skiing, diving, spectacles and shows, picturesque market… |
La Ciotat
is also the city of the Lumière brothers. It
is there that they carried out their first movie "the
entry of the train in La Ciotat station", and organized,
in their villa, September 21th, 1895, the first private
projection, and on December 28th, 1895, the first public
projection in the "Eden Théâtre"
(the world oldest cinema, where still happen festivals
and other cultural demonstrations).
It is also
in La Ciotat, in 1910, that the "petanque"
was invented, by Mr. Jules Lenoir. |
|
|
|
La Ciotat has also received in 2002, the world championship
of tuna fishing
and many fishing contests (ratified by the FFPM)
are organized there every year. |
|
|
