La Treille is a ''quartier'' on the outskirts of the 11th ''arrondissement'' of

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, in the Department of

Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and large ...

, France. It has approximately 900 inhabitants. At the centre of the ''quartier'' is the seventeenth century hillside village of La Treille.

Overview

La Treille became famous as the place where writer

Marcel Pagnol Marcel Paul Pagnol (; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974) was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française. Although his work is less fashionable ...

spent his summer holidays during his childhood—at the ''Bastide Neuve''—and he is buried in the cemetery there.''Books and Writers'' This is also where ''La Pascaline''—the house where Pagnol started to write ''

Souvenirs d'enfance ''Souvenirs d'enfance'' ("Souvenirs of infancy", "Childhood memories") is a series of autobiographical novels by French filmmaker and Académie française, ''académicien'', Marcel Pagnol (1895–1974).''Books and Writers'' ''Souvenirs d'enfance' ...

'' ('' La Gloire de mon père'' and ''

Le Château de ma mère ''My Mother's Castle'' (french: Le Château de ma mère) is a 1957 autobiographical novel by Marcel Pagnol, the second in the four-volume series ''Souvenirs d'enfance'' and the sequel to ''My Father's Glory''. It was the subject of a film mad ...

'')—is located. Pagnol's early films used the village as a backdrop and its inhabitants as actors: it has only slightly changed since then. Behind the church, in the main square or ''placette'', is a small fountain, used as Manon's fountain in Pagnol's 1953 film version of Manon des Sources. The village is situated at the start of the range of hills containing the

Garlaban Garlaban is a hill which looks out to Aubagne. The summit is 715 metres high although its highest point is the ''butte des pinsots'' (731 m). It can be seen from most of the southern part of Bouches-du-Rhône, from Marseille to the valley of Huve ...

. This countryside featured prominently in Pagnol's books about his childhood and is now known in France as ''La Pagnolie''. It can be explored on footpaths starting at the end of the ''chemin des Bellons'', the main street in the village. A section of the Canal de Marseille passes below the village, which is served by the public transport system of Marseille and accessible also from

Aubagne Aubagne (, ''Aubanha'' in Occitan language, Occitan according to the classic norm or ''Aubagno'' according to the Mistralian norm) is a Commune in France, commune in the southern French Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône. In ...

Gallery

Notes and references

External links

Panoramic view of ''La Treille''

detailed map of the walking routes near La Treille, devised by Georges Berni in the late 1970s 11th arrondissement of Marseille Quarters of Marseille {{BouchesRhône-geo-stub