MV Massalia


MV Massalia is a ferry operated by La Méridionale between Marseille, France and Tanger Med, Morocco. She was built in 1992 for Brittany Ferries, who she sailed for until 2025.

History

Brittany Ferries

Normandie was built in 1992 at Kværner Masa-Yards Turku New Shipyard in Finland.
As of 1 January 2015, the European Union required to have sulphur in marine fuel cut from the allowance in 2014 of 1% to 0.1% of sulphur allowed. Later that month, Brittany Ferries announced three intentions; To fit scrubbers to a number of older vessels, to convert newer vessels to liquefied natural gas, and to construct a new LNG-powered ferry. Later, Brittany Ferries withdrew and cancelled the order for a new LNG-powered ferry and for the LNG conversions, and instead announced that all vessels were to have scrubbers systems fitted. Accordingly, Normandie was fitted with a scrubber in October 2015. In the same dry dock visit, improvements were made to her public areas.
On 17 April 2025, Normandie made her last sailing for Brittany Ferries. She sailed the night-time crossing between Portsmouth and Ouistreham arriving on the morning of 18 April. She was replaced by Guillaume de Normandie.

Routes served

Normandie rarely strayed from the route for which she was built, however, she has operated between Portsmouth and Cherbourg on a number of sailings, mostly for Christmas and New Year layovers but also in 1994 to transport the Tour de France back to its home country after a leg in the United Kingdom. In late 2016, Brittany Ferries signed a letter of intent with Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft for a new cruise ferry between Portsmouth–Caen to be delivered in 2019. The new vessel, Honfleur, would result in a fleet movement with Normandie assigned to the Portsmouth–Le Havre service from late 2019. In June 2020 Brittany Ferries announced the cancellation of the Honfleur contract with the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft shipyard in Germany resulting in Normandie remaining on the Portsmouth-Caen route.
From June 2025, she will operate between Marseille and Tánger Med with La Méridionale.