"The southern French people are more or less isolated from the other western European populations. They are in an intermediate position between the North Africans (Algerians from Algiers and Oran; Tunisians) and the western Europeans populations (France, Spain, and Portugal) (...) These results cannot be attributed to recent events because of the knowledge of the grandparents’ origin in our sample (...) This study reveals that the southern French population from Marseilles is related genetically to the southwestern Europeans and North Africans, who are geographically close. A substantial gene flow has thus probably been present among the populations of these neighboring areas."