CASSIS

Any boat trips to see the calanques from Mareilles only were being conducted on Saturdays now during this season and we had heard that you didn't want to miss seeing the fishing village of Cassis so we decided that would be our venture for the day.  Trying to get to Cassis was not as easy as we had anticipated only because we could not find the right bus.  We had had little trouble getting on the subway and finding the right street for the bus but busses kept going by and none read Cassis.  I asked one of the bus drivers who had gotten out of his bus and he spoke hesitantly but in English, "In front of the pink bush".  Well I looked for a pink bush and it suddenly occurred to me he had said "pink bus" of which there were many.  I finally hesitantly ask a young man who was doing something on his cell phone and asked if he spoke English which he did and then when he indicated he lived in Marseille I asked him where we would catch the bus for Cassis.  He looked up and down the block and said follow me.  Off me went at his "young man" speed but we managed to keep up.  

Quite a way up the block he spoke to some women who pointed back in  the direction we had come from.  Back we went at his break neck speed and he deposited us in front of a bus stand and said this is it.  Whew!  A couple , who we later learned were from Malasia. grabbed the young man and they too were looking for the bus to Cassis.  He assured them this was the stop and off he went - a Good Samaritan.  He went out of his way to help us.  We talked with the couple and shared info and then went and had a cup of coffee since we had a little time until the bus left.  The couple had their daughter with them and a young man who we were unable to decide it he was the boyfriend of the daughter or a brother.  (We're leaning to the boyfriend).

Anyway we got off at the bus stop and followed the signs into town.  At this point we parted company.  

Our first sighting of the down town village was the market.  

Sharon had seen a sign for the Tourism Office around this area so we wandered around here but couldnt find it.

One restaurant after another .  Did I mention seafood restaurant after seafood restaurant.  That doesn't bode well for lunch.  I wanted to get some bouillabaisse for lunch since the dish originated in Marseille.  Well, around lunch time we looked for any restaurant that served bouillabaisse that had something besides fish on the menu.  No luck.  The one restaurant that I really wanted to eat at had bouillabaisse on the menu for 50 euro's and nothing that didn't include seafood.  I certainly did not want to spend 50 euro's and eat in front of Sharon and I didn't want to eat myself while Sharon went off by herself  That's no fun. Besides the portion had to be gigantic and I wasn't that hungry.  Would have been good for a group I think.  We finally found a little hotel restaurant which served something other than fish.  I had a fish lunch special and Sharon had something other than fish.  

We walked around lookiing for some boats that might be going out to see the calanques.  No luck.   We had seen one but he had a sign that said minimun 6 people.  When we finally decided to approach him, he was not on the boat.  We deicded that we would head back on the 3:00 bus.  As we were heading in the direction to catch the bus we ran into our Malasian friends and they asked us if we had toured the calanques yet.  When we said no they said they were going on boat no. 7 at 3:00 and to join them.  We were so happy.  They went off and we looked for boat no. 7 and finally realized we had not walked up a certain area of the port and there indeed were a number of boats taking tourists out to view the calanques.  We also discovered the Tourism Office up the same street. 

We found boat 7 and they told us to just show up around 3:00 and pay then.  

We walked around a bit waiting for the our departure time.

Found this lovely beach and also not so lovely public toilette.

Took a look inside the tourist office which had this cute Christmas display 

Time to go!  We walked back to the boat and met up with our friends, paid our money and had time for some pictures before taking off.

These were our friends who if we hadn't met we probablly would have gone back to Marseilles without seeing the calanques.

We were given a "program" in English which described what calanques we were going to see which was 5 and a brief description of them.  

As we started we saw the oldest hotel in Cassis where Winston Churchill spend much of his time painting Cap Canaille.

This stone quarry which opened in 1901 and finally closed in 1981 provided stone-blocks which were used to construct different Mediterranean ports such as Alger, the Suez Canal, and the plinth of the Statue of Liberty among many others.

Port-Miou calanque, which means in provencal: "well sheltered from the wind".  Up above on the right is the chapel of Notre Dame, which was constructed in 1649 in order to give thanks for having survived the plague.

 

There is a low wall on the left which marks the beginning of a cross-country footpath which follows the coast and the creeks as far as Marseille, which is about a 12 hour hike away.   If Sharon's foot hadn't been bothering her I'm sure we would have opted for a hike along the calanqus rather then taking the boat trip.

Our next calanque was Port Pin.  It is named after the alep pine trees that grow between rock and require very little soil to survive.

The third calanque,EnVau, which means "in the valley" in old French.  It is the pearl of creeks according to many and a meeting place for climbers from all over the world.  On the right you see what is called "God's finger (295 ft high) and at his foot is "Devils's hole".

 The finger of God.

You can barely see the Devil's hole here.  

About this time in the trip the waters got a little choppy and we were getting a little wet in the front of the boat and moving around I lost tract of where we were in the program and what I was seeing so from here out its just pictures.  People hike along these and the view from the heighst must be just spectacular.  

I took these pictures off the internet so you could see what the views would be if you were hiking along the trail and also so you can see how clear the water is.  During the summer people swim and kayak, hike and sunbath - nude.

 Sorry, not the nude beach.

Just a little nudist beach. I zoomed in but still can't tell if the sun worshippers were nude or not.

A good view of the Chateau de Cassis.  It is apparently closed now but was built in the 13th century and more recently was a luxury hotel and is now a private residence.  It sits prominently on the hill overlooking Cassis.   

This is a couple of pictures I got off the website.  There are 7 bedrooms and 7 baths.  The views are out of this world.  Truly luxurious!

We caught the bus back and arrived in Marseilles right around 6:00.  Now the dilemma.  Do we just head for a restaurant right away or do we walk back to the hotel , climb 74 steps, get cleaned up or just go find a place to eat.  It was a very difficult decision but we opted to just go find a place to eat.  We had spotted a Vietnamese restaurant which had great ratings so decided we'd go there.  Well it was closed as a lot of restaurants are closed for the holiday season and also it was a bit early to be eating in France.  Again, no seafood.  We looked and looked and it appeared there was just not a lot of options so I looked at Sharon and said how about "The Hard Rock Cafe?  I mean, we have not been to any "American"restaurants on this whole trip and I knew they had a good variety and Sharon would be able to find something she liked and the more I thought about it the better idea it became.  And so we did it!  We had margarita's and Mexican food - nachos and quesadillas.  It was just real good!

Our train left at 1018 on Saturday morning.  We took a cab and headed to the train station.  We checked with the information booth in the center of the station and she assured us the 1018 stopped in Avignon although the signage didn't indicate it.  So when they put up the platform number of the 1018 train we headed over there.  Just to be sure the train stopped in Avignon we spoke with one of the train personnel hoping to get confirmations  She checked the board and said , "No".  Oh dear, back to the drawing board.  We found another information office and he advised us we should catch the fast train to the TGV Station in Avignon and then catch the train back to Avignon Centre.  We did not have reserved seats on the fast train and that meant that once we sat down , at every stop there was a possibility of having to move.  It was just a 31 minute train ride so we could manage not having a seat if necessary.  We started out fine and then had to give up our seats.  As it turned out Sharon lost her seat to a lady but  one of the girls sitting with us came back to tell us seats were available so we went back.  I took the seat I had been sitting in and although there was an other available seat a woman had her purse on it and made no attempt to move it.  Sharon ended up sitting  in the area between the cars.  We arrived at the station  and saw that the train going to Avignon Centre was leaving in 15 minutes.  We found our platform, hopped the train, and we were back home in Avignon.

We had had a great trip but its always nice to come home.