Marseilles has witnessed many of the transformations that are shaping the coast of the United States, but Marseilles is thriving where many of the older industrial seaports on the U.S. East Coast, have yet to find their new relationships to the shoreline. This is especially true since the great storm of 2012 inundated many of the coastal communities of metropolitan New York City. I wish to spend a 5 month research sejour in Marseilles looking at the ports of my own coast, but through a lens of experience gained in Marseilles, an ancient yet modern port on another sea.