Marseille or Marseilles is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône river. Marseille is the second-most populous city in France, after Paris, with 873,076 inhabitants in 2021. Marseille with its suburbs and exurbs create the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, with a population of 1,911,311 at the 2021 census.