Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1720
The Great Plague of Marseille eventually leads to the death of more than half the city's
population, and the building of Le Mur de la Peste (Plague Wall).
1789-94
Revolutionaries storm the Bastille, leading to the beheading of Louis XVI and Marie-
Antoinette and the Reign of Terror, seeing religious freedoms revoked.
1790-92
Provence is divided into three
départements
(which still exist today); papal Avignon
and Comtat Venaissin are annexed by France and Vaucluse is created.
1815
Exiled Napoléon Bonaparte escapes Elba and journeys in secret over the mountains
near Digne-les-Bains and Gap to reclaim his title in Paris - it'll only last 100 days.
1848
In 1848 French revolutionaries adopt the red, white and blue tricolour of Martigues
near Marseille as their own. France's national flag is born.
1860
The County of Nice becomes part of French Provence. Meanwhile, European royalty
winters in Nice, Europe's fastest-growing city.
1914-18
The human cost of WWI is enormous: of the eight million French men called to arms,
1.3 million are killed and almost one million crippled.
1920s
The Côte d'Azur sparkles as Europe's avant-garde centre and the luxurious
Train Bleu
(Blue Train) makes its first run from Calais to the Mediterranean coast.
1939-45
