Special envoy to Marseille
In Marseille, on the edge of the Corniche Kennedy, after the Anse de la Fausse-Monnaie, a sign eaten away by rust and tarnished by sea spray reminds us that from 1880, it was decided to calculate the zero point nearby altitudes in France.
The Phocaean city was chosen due to the low tidal range.
“
We thought it was the lowest point of the French ports ,
”
recalls Alain Coulomb, president of the Friends of the Marseille tide gauge association.
It was a small mistake, since Port-de-Bouc (located between Martigues and Fos-sur-Mer) had a lower level, but no matter.
The tide gauge site made it possible to define the “zero point” of altitudes in France at the end of the 19th century.
This landmark was necessary for the engineer Paul-Adrien Bourdalouë to launch the general leveling of France and the deployment throughout the metropolis of a network, which bears his name, of thousands of landmarks.
The aim was to facilitate…
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