When I was a kid, our English teacher taught us that in English, Marseille was said Marseilles. It felt odd that foreign people changed the name of our city, but who am I to say... we do the same when it comes to names of foreign towns and cities (Londres, Douvres, Naples, to name a few).
Anyway, although I write this blog in English, I'll keep the French name, it would feel too weird otherwise. Besides many people who speak English now write Marseille.
Marseille is no stranger to name changes, when you come to think of it. When Greeks from Phocaea first created it, they called it Massalia. Even today, we often refer to Marseille as "la cité phocéenne" (the Phocaean city). Then, when the colony became Roman, it was named Massilia. Later, the occitan name was Marselha, which became Marseille in French.
