Near Cassis, lies the town of La Ciotat, home of cinema and pétanque, a game of boccie.
The town is also known for scenic beauty, such as Mugel, a municipal park, and île Verte, off the municipality.
La Ciotat is a French commune located in the vicinity of Cassis.
Cinema was born in this small town. Here, in fact, is located theEden Théâtre. It is the oldest cinema in the world still exists. Today it is an art-house hall, where art films are shown. When it opened, however, the Eden Théâtre was a more eclectic entertainment venue: opened on June 16, 1889, it hosted variety shows, theater, music hall, as well as sports evenings with boxing matches and Greco-Roman wrestling. Future celebrities such as Fernandel and Yves Montand took their first steps on its stage.
But the fame of the Eden Théâtre-and consequently of La Ciotat-is due to the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière, who first used the Eden as a movie theater. In January 1896 they organized the first, private screening of a film there: a sequence in which a train arrives at the station. It was the famous“The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station,” a short film that changed the history of entertainment.
La Ciotat is known as the home of pétanque, a specialty of the sport of boules. A typical game of Provence, it has become a national symbol, so much so that it is being proposed as a possible new Olympic discipline for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The first official game took place in 1907, after the game was invented by the brothers Ernest and Joseph Pitot so that their friend Jules Lenoir could continue to play boules despite his rheumatism.
The objective of the game is to score points by placing one’s own bowl closer to the ball than that of one’s opponent.
Competitions can pit two teams of three or two players (triplets and doublets, respectively) or individual players against each other (tête à tête). In teams of three players each has two bowls, while in teams of two or as singles, three.
Nature is also a protagonist in La Ciotat. In addition to being home to two calanques, you can visit Mugel, a municipal park and botanical garden listed among the extraordinary gardens of France, and île Verte, a small uninhabited island located off the coast of La Ciotat.