Cassis and the Calanques

My mom is here visiting from Boston.  She arrived just in time for Julian’s birthday celebration, which may merit another entry in and of itself.  But after a few days of adventures with the kids, my mom and I decided to take an “adult” trip down to Cassis, a beach town on the Mediterranean Sea.  I drove the enormous van we had rented for the weekend, and even managed to make it through all of the many and various types of toll booths.  (This was one of my biggest worries before we set out – the toll booths are pretty much all unlabeled and so we have had MANY adventures trying to make our way through, trying coins, cash, credit cards and finally buzzing for help just to make it through the darn gate!) 

Approaching Cassis, the sights just get better and better.  The mountains are more stunning, the little villages are quainter and when you finally turn around the last bend to catch sight of the sea your whole being just breathes a sigh of completeness.  My mom did not disappoint.  “Oh, oh, oh!”  We hunted out some parking and walked down to the port.  There are so many restaurants surrounding the port, whetting our appetite for our luncheon to come.  But first up on the agenda (how we could have an agenda in a lazy sea port I don’t know, but we did) was to figure out how to catch a boat out to the Calanques. 

“The Calanques” is the name given to the cliff and creek formations along the coast between Marseille and Cassis.  There are a number of hidden coves, each with marvels of their own.  We easily found a boat tour and hopped aboard the boat which was to leave in two minutes.  French time.  About twenty minutes later, with a full boatload, we set off to the colorful commentary of our French tour guide. 

Our tour was to cover eight Calanques.  They really were hidden from view, until just about the moment of approach.  The first had a Roman wall along one side, with the drop-dead turquoise blue color of the sea surrounding us on all sides.  There was a rich-French-person Marina “hidden” in this cove as well, which sort of detracted from the beauty of it all.  Unless, of course, you were one of the lucky boat-owners!

The Calanques sort of blend together in a impressionist painting of white cliffs, wind-carved formations, turquoise sea, colorful fish and plongeurs (deep-sea divers).  Some of the highlights were: a natural amphitheatre of stone dubbed Lula’s cathedral, with towers reaching up to the sky and a “window” peeking from one Calanque into the next.  Another with a tower pointing straight up to the sky, dubbed “God’s finger” with a grotto below dubbed “Devil’s Hole.”  Two rock islands guarding another Calanque, in the form of two hump-backed camels.  Several sea caves with seemingly endless walls, and a submerged grotto that has prehistoric paintings on the walls.  And over and over and over again, the stunning backdrop of the sheer white cliffs plunging down to the blue sea below. 

And then, best of all, I could show my mom the seventh Calanque, to which we had taken the boys over the summer.  I could point out to my mom the mountains over which we had to hike, the steepness of the trail that even Noah maneuvered without issue and the stunning little beach where we set up camp, secluded from almost all sight.  The most exciting part of hiking in to this particular Calanque (which we accessed completely through public transportation, BTW, with a bus from Aix to Marseille, a Metro ride and then one more bus to the University at Luminy) is that once you are out swimming, there is a rock just close by from which one can jump and dive into the waters below.  It is quite a leap, but Ed and I jumped, as well as Micah! It was a really cool feeling to have boated in so far and to know that my family had gotten to the same location on their own two legs!

Returning to Cassis, my mom and I started scouting menus.  Not so easy for two women, one of whom is a vegetarian and the other of whom does not eat any seafood, in a beach-town.  We chose a restaurant, ordered two salads and sat back to watch the world walk by.  Five noisy Frenchmen sat at a table nearby, slurping oysters and pouring wine.  A couple to one side of us had a romantic luncheon while a couple on the other side had two glasses of wine and two large bowls of olives then tottered off for a stroll.  A couple with their dog in tow sat down to dine, ordering for their dog as well.  And this is all with the fishing boats and yachts not 50 metres away, the sounds of the waves against the sea walls accompanying our meal. 

After lunch we walked down to the beach so that my mom could put her toes in the Mediterranean Sea.  It was cold!  I (wisely, I think) refrained, as the last two times I had come with my family it was in the heat of summer, with lots of topless and tanned bodies sun-bathing cheek and jowl with my boisterous family! The beach at Cassis is lovely.  It is a pebble beach, but once you are swimming it makes no difference on your feet.  The waves are more than enough to keep us happy, with lots of good opportunities for jumping and even for a few wipe-outs!  And just above the beach, atop yet another high cliff, sits this mysterious chateau.  It is enormous, and must still be privately owned as it is not open to the public.  It stretches across so much of the clifftop as to seem an entire castle, with a mix of both medieval and modern architecture.  There are jaw-dropping panoramic windows from which one can only imagine the view, and what must be a swimming pool right along the edge.

We took one final walk through the port to check out the lighthouse at the end, and then we were off, back to Aix to pick up the boys from school.  I think of the phrase I read in a book at one point, “Feeling pleased with her purchases…” because as we left the town of Cassis I just kept thinking, “Feeling pleased with their seaside adventure, the two ladies headed back for home.”