We are off to Cassis a little fishing village about 25 minutes out of Marseille. First we take the Metro 1 two stops and then find the bus going to Cassis. Metro was fine and then we walked down the sreet looking for the right bus stop. A very nice oriental man was standing by a bus stop and we ask him if he spoke English. He did and proceeded to take us down to the stop he thought was the correct one. He spoke to some ladies and they said no, the stop we wanted was back the way we came, so off we go again. Finally found it and there was another Asian family standing there looking for the same bus stop. Our helpful young man bid us a good day and off he went. People are so helpful when you need it. We had about twenty minutes to wait for the 11:00 am bus so we all went into a bolangerie and had a coffee, and then back out to the bus stop to wait.
The bus arrived promptly and we were off with our new Malaysian friends. A beautiful ride up and down the mountains into Cassis. The bus stopped in a kind of residential area, but assured us this was closest to city center, so of we went in search of the port. We all walked down the street past the Casino and then saw a small park and a sign for the tourist center, so we knew we were close. We parted company here and Terry and I went on our way through the park
and finally came to the port
A ton of restaurants,all selling boullabaise and seafood. Nothing for non fish eaters. I could starve in this village. Well I could live on fat for a while I guess. Finely found one that had an omelet, but not very inspiring. After lunch we still had not found the illusive tourist office.
Other than being a fishing village known for its boullabaise, the Calalnques are off the coast. We were not able to get a tour from Marseille, so we thought we might be able to from here, hence the search for the tourist office. We had checked the bus schedule and the next bus back to Marseille wasn't until 5:15 and it was about 1:30. What will we do until 5 PM. As we were about to give up, we walked back down to the port from lunch and ran into our Malaysian family again. They had just booked a tour to the Calanques for 2:00 o'clock. The Mom kept saying go to boat seven, it is going. We had completely missed this side of the port and sure enough as we walked down the pier we started seeing boat numbers. Voila #7.
We told the skipper we wanted on the tour and then walked on down the pier to the WC. Yep there was the tourist office plain as the nose on your face. Don't know how we missed it. Course we no longer needed it, as we had found a tour. This cute Christmas display was inside
Back outside the beach was beautiful
Time to board the boat.
Pictures of course
Our new Malaysian friends
And we are off leaving the harbor. Cape Canaille. It is the third highest sea-cliff in Europe and rises 394 metres above sea level. At the foot of this cliff, above the main beach, lies a castle built in the 13the century for the Earl of Baux. You cannot visit the castle. Winston Churchill stayed at the oldest hotel in Cassis the "White Rock Hotel", which faces this across the bay. He often painted Cape Cannaille from there.
Point of "Bonne Mere" (Good Mother), as the people of Marseille call the Virgin Mary. This point is also appreciated by nudists and there were a few out today.
The Calanques are limestone cliffs that plunge into the Mediterranean and connects Marseille to Cassis with almost 20 km of marked trails. This classified site extending over 4000 hectares to visit from Cassis. Magical and enchanting coves are a paradise for scuba diving, climbing, discovery of the fauna and flora ... It would have been nice to walk some of the trails, but we lacked time and I wasn't sure my old sore foot could walk that far. So the next best thing was a boat trip. No walking required. First up... |
Port-Miou, which means in provencal: "well sheltered from the wind".
Up above secluded by pine trees, lies the chapel of Notre Dame, which was constructed in 1649 in order to give thanks for having survived the plague
Approximately 500 small boats moor here all year long. It is the longest creek in the area measuring 1 mile in length
Port Pin, It is named after the alep pine trees that grow between rocks and require vry little soil to survive
En Vau, which means "in the valley" in old French. It is the pearl of the creeks according to many and a meeting plac for climbers that come from all over the world to pursue their passion. On the right-hand side "God's finger" points to the sky (90 metres high), and at his foot is "Devil's hole".
The cliffs on the left are 130 metres high and often have climbers on them
God's finger
Castelvieil (old castle) with a natural open-cave arch shaped by water erosion over the centuries
Passing Devenson creek bounded by circular cliff 150 metres high and dedicated to the God of winds. Only the best climbers train here.
The water here was quite rough and it was impossible to sit in the front of the boat where we were without getting wet. We promptly moved to the center or rear of the boat until we made the turn to go back to the harbor.
returning to the bay of Cassis.
and the harbor
on the left a fisherman working on his nets
Back at the dock and off to catch the 5:15 bus back to Marseille. One bus and two metro stops and we are back in the Old Port. Stopped at the little hat shop we saw yesterday and I succumbed to another red hat. Well it is Christmas! Took this festive selfie at home as Terry for once did not snap a photo of my new hat.
As we walked back to our hotel, we decided we didn't want to climb the stairs to our room before dinner, so we went in search of a restaurant that served earlier than 7:00. We succumbed to "The Hard Rock Cafe" Marseille. And they had Mexican food, no Boulabaise. We pigged out on Nachos and Quesadillas and a Margherita. Yum!
We waddled back to the hotel and up the steps one last time. We caught a cab to the train station next morning and as usual we were early. Arrived at 9:30 for our 10:16 train. Only problem was the only 10:16 train was NOT going to Avignon. We wandered around looking for the ticket office and they told us to go to the information office. The very helpful man there said NOPE, that train is not going to Avignon. He told us we could take the TGV (fast) train at 12:06 that would take us to Avignon's big station. We would then have to transfer to the shuttle train into Avignon Central. He said we could use our current tickets to do all of this, so we waited around, had a coffee or two and then found our platform. The staff checked our tickets as we started down the platform and I wasn't sure they were going to let us on. The man checked with another person who looked at the departures board and said ok. Apparently he knew our original train was cancelled. The TGV train is the fast train to Paris so normally you have seats assigned. As we had none we just sat down in the first ones we came to. We were ok until we got to Aix en Provence and then we had to move. I ended up sitting on the steps between two cars, but I was not alone and we only had about another 15 minutes into Avignon. The timing was perfect for the little train and we arrived nicley and in plenty of time to go home and clean up for a 4:00 PM Christmas Concert for which we had bought tickets.
We got all pretty and off we went to Saint-Pierre Church. The church was empty, so we stood around waiting for awhile and still no one showed up. We checked our tickets which were for Dec 21st. Oops we are a day EARLY!. We gotta do a better job of knowing what day it is. We broke out laughing as we had just recently lost a couple of days the week before we left for Nice. Don't know how that happens. Oh well, we just took our dressed up selves off the square and had a glass of wine.
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