France 2022 – Cassis, by the sea

April 13-15, 2022

From Saint Rémy I said good-bye to the hills of the Luberon and Les Alpilles and travelled by train south to Marseille and from there to the town of Cassis and its protected harbour on the Mediterranean. In his guidebook “Provence and the Cote d’Azur”, Rick Steves had assured me that Cassis is a small town that has yet to be discovered and does not see the crowds that other Mediterranean coastal towns see. Hmmm, not so. It has actually been very crowded here with people on their Spring Break holiday, mostly French families but I have also heard a lot of German, some Italian, and some British and American accents. I blame it on the calanques. (More on those later!)

I went straight to my apartment, located just one block away from the busy waterfront street, and when I remarked on the crowds to my host, Guy, he advised me to walk to the Plage de l’Arene, the quietest and easternmost of Cassis’ four beaches. So, after settling in, that is what I did.

Following Guy’s advice, I walked the length of the rocky beach (thankfully, someone had fashioned a path through the rough jumble of rocks) and then climbed up and over a small rocky outcropping that that hid a tiny cove.

There was a French family of three there and the dad had just been out with his snorkel gear spear fishing, but without any luck. I sat for a while and watched the waves come in. It felt good to smell the sea air and see and hear gulls again. I retraced my steps along the beach, climbed up to the road, and then headed back towards Cassis but first I stopped in for a quick peek at the next beach over, Plage du Corton.

The next day was a very easy day for me with lots of relaxing. I went out fairly early in the morning to take a few photos of the town before everyone was up and about.

Here is a narrow street, just around the corner from my apartment, and a view of my sunny room where I spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon doing some email, trip planning, and blogging. (Yes, the bed is not made. I told you I was having an easy day!)

In the late afternoon I took the local bus up the hill to the public swimming pool. It was a real treat to swim again, and fun to be amongst all of the French families. When I returned to the waterfront, the streets were very busy with people strolling about or sitting outside at a café or restaurant. Here, people are on a tour boat ready to head out to see the calanques (more on those later!)

After a nice dinner at my apartment (made by Chef Moi), I strolled over to the town’s biggest beach, Plage de la Grande Mer. This wide, family-friendly beach is composed of small, pastel-coloured pebbles that are soft underfoot. Children were having fun and shrieking in the way that they do when they run into the receding waves and then run away from the bigger-than-expected incoming waves. It was a very typical and happy beach sound. Parents and small groups were chatting while they watched their kids or looked at the sea, and a few brave souls were swimming though the water is still quite cold. I took just a few pictures…

and then I sat and spent quite a bit of time sifting through the pretty pebbles, choosing a small assortment of those that pleased me. It was a very easy day indeed.

Les Calanques

Okay, so I’m very very tired because I hiked the calanques today. The calanques are long narrow inlets along the coast between Marseille and Cassis that are edged with steep and craggy limestone cliffs. They are very beautiful and dramatic-looking as the water in the calaques is a turquoise blue and the cliffs are white and accented with dark green pines and other vegetation. Most definitely they are why Cassis has become so popular as there are amazing photos of the calanques on many travel websites and blogs, especially the Calanque d’En-vau which has very high vertical cliffs. In an instagram world it is a dream destination for a wow photo – but you do have to work for it! (Spoiler alert, I did not get that wow photo!)

I woke up early and was out the door by 7:30. I wanted to hike in the coolness of the morning and I also wanted to beat the crowds and the boats that visit the calanques. After a 30 minute uphill walk on narrow town roads, I reached the trailhead to the first of the three calanques on this hike, the Calanque de Port-Miou. A level dirt track paralleled this inlet which is completely lined with pleasure boats.

Then the trail narrowed and rose up, heading toward the beach at the end of the Calanque du Port Pin. It was another hazy day and looking out over the Mediterranean it was difficult to see where the sea met the sky!

A quick descent brought me down towards the beach at the end of the Calanque de Port Pin.

Beautiful! There were only a few other hikers about, the sun was at my back, and the gorgeous pine trees were kindly providing plenty of shade. I didn’t linger as there was still at least 90 minutes of hiking to arrive at the next, most dramatic, calanque. (I do wish they would post distance rather than time. Ninety minutes for who?)

I choose the blue trail which is longer and more challenging but which has more view points over the Calanque d’En-vau. First, the trail climbed steeply up for views down towards the end of the Port Pin inlet. One can walk all the way out to the end of the point which is what I did on the return trip, even though I was very tired. Half-way across the point, and on the other side, is where I met the monster!

Now, a word about this trail. Along most of the route, the trail is on rocky, lumpy, bumpy, uneven limestone and jumbled limestone rocks which makes it very challenging underfoot. This image, looking downhill, shows the typical, but not worst, trail surface on this hike.

So, I had to focus very much on foot placement while also enjoying the scenery as the trail weaved its way, generally uphill, to the Pointe d’en-Vau, and then along the top of cliffs on the north side of the inlet. It was very scary getting close to the edge for views down to the water! Here is a view near the beginning of the inlet,

then further along the inlet,

still further along,

and then a glimpse of the small beach at the end of the inlet!

Here is a zoomed in photo of that beautiful water. See how precipitous the cliffs are!

The trail continued along on the cliff top for some distance past the end of the beach, with views back,

and then a surprising view of the Mediterranean view opened up in a dip in the cliffs across the way.

After about another ten minutes or so along the cliff top, the trail began a slow descent, and then I reached this point. Uh oh. Way way down there are people on the trail (near the centre of the photo, in a little white backwards crescent shape).

Here they are, zoomed in. Where they are walking looks flat in the photo, but they’re actually heading down a fairly steep wide trail of jumbled rocks. But, it’s the part in-between, from where I am looking down and where they are that is considered “challenging” in all of the route descriptions. I really really didn’t want to go down, mostly because I didn’t want to come back up again! I sat for a bit, had some water, ate an orange, and tried to figure out if it was too much for me to go down there (“it’s just a beach and some blue water, I don’t really need to go down” vs. ”I’ve come this far, I’ll regret it if I don’t, slow and steady and I’ll be fine”).

I went down. Hands, bottom, and careful manoeuvres were definitely needed to go down this very steep section of rough limestone, and thank goodness there were some trail-side trees and bushes to act as anchors of support. Finally, phew, on the flat, between two walls of limestone, it was nice and cool and I could smell the sea in the light breeze. Here is a photo for Sophie and Aaron. There is a climber, with a blue backpack halfway up that wall of limestone!

I turned this next corner,

and here was the beach.

I walked to one side, sat myself down on the pebbles with this amazing view, and took a well-deserved break.

I couldn’t completely relax though because I knew I had to go back up! I ate half my lunch, watched the few brave swimmers and a couple of paddle boarders who paddled their way in to the beach, and then got back up again to start the return journey. Good-bye Calanque d’En-vau!

The long slog up the jumbled-rock trail was not fun, but I really enjoyed the climb up the steepest part. It is definitely less scary going up than down. A lot more people were coming down the trail now and I had plenty of opportunities to stop and catch my breath while I let them pass. At the top, I considered re-doing the blue cliff top trail but decided that I had had enough challenges for one day and so I chose the easier red trail which was a rather tediously steady downhill slog that led fairly quickly back to the beach at the Calanque de Port Pin. It was so busy there! It was close to noon now and people were all over the beach and the rocks and coming down the hill towards the beach like a line of ants! Wow. I was so glad that I had started out early.

I was very tired, and many of my parts were hurting, but the trails leading out to the end of the point were appealing so I headed up and out towards the point, and then over to the other side where I found a monster!

Beneath this crevice there must be a sea cave. There was a small crack in the rock surface on the cliff top, about 40 cm long and 5 cm wide, that expelled air with a loud, strange moan each time a wave came in, like a hurt whale or monster exhaling with belaboured breath. It was a very unsettling sound!

Once I understood the cause of that strange, repetitive sound, I decided that I rather liked the monster and so I sat near the edge of the cliff, off to the right, beneath the pines. This time, I was able to fully relax as I finished my lunch and looked out over the sea, with views down into Port Miou to my left and across to Cap Canaille in the distance ahead of me.

Heading back towards Cassis, I couldn’t resist taking this photo looking into the boat-lined Calanque de Port Miou.

And, as I neared town, I also had to photograph the westernmost and last of Cassis’ four beaches, the Plage du Bestouan.

At the far end of this beach there was a small rocky outcropping that I was compelled to explore as I was leaving Cassis the next morning and knew I would not be back here again. Sigh, stairs down from the street, then more stairs up and around the outcropping, but it was worth it for a view of the harbour that I had not yet seen.

Then, I as returned back around the headland to the end of the beach I heard happy shrieks and looked down to see three girls, huddled together on the rock below, waiting excitedly for waves to crash onto them. What fun!

Now, by this point, I had been walking fairly steadily, and often strenuously, for about six hours. I won’t name all of the parts that were hurting but the list is quite long and I was seriously wondering if I’d make it up the stairs to my apartment. Yet, when I got to the harbour-front street, the lighting was so lovely, and there was some blue in the sky, so I just had to take these last few photos of the town of Cassis, by the sea. Thank you, calanques, for bringing me here!