Ferry boat

This guide follows Marseille's harbor ferry boat from its 1880 launch by a former sailor named Francois Paoleschi through generations of skippers who insisted, half-joking, that they were captains rather than ferrymen. It traces the boat's link to Marcel Pagnol's 1931 film Marius, and the vessel nicknamed Cesar, built in 1952 at the shipyards of La Seyne sur Mer. Step aboard and the whole crossing takes less time than the story does to tell.