About Marseille

Marseille ( mar-SAY, French: [maʁsɛj] (listen), locally [maχˈsɛjə] (listen); also spelled in English as Marseilles; Occitan: Marselha [maʀˈsejɔ, -ˈsijɔ]) is the prefecture of the Bouches-du-Rhône department and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, France. Situated in the Provence historical province, it is located on the coast of the Gulf of Lion, part of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône. Marseille is the second-largest city in France, covering an area of 241 km2 (93 sq mi); it had a population of 870,018 in 2016. Its metropolitan area, which extends over 3,174 km2 (1,225 sq mi), is the third-largest in France after those of Paris and Lyon, with a population of 1,760,653 as of 2017, or 3,100,329 (2019) by the broader Eurostat definition of metropolitan region. Its inhabitants are called Marseillais.