April 15, 2019 - sad end to a fabulous day in Cassis

Notre Dame de Paris is burning - fire started around 7 pm our time and as of now, 9 pm, the fire is still burning. We are all heart sick over this and can hardly believe it. It is a sad ending to an otherwise beautiful day.

view of Cassis on our way into town

Today was Nancy's last day and our first adventure beyond our region.

Our target was Cassis - don't pronounce the final -s - a town on the edge of the Calanques National Park. A fishing town originally, the town today is home to wealthy summer escapees from Marseilles (and other parts of France and beyond), and lots of tourists. And for good reason. The port is charming with its old town stepping down to the port.

Cassis - the port

The setting is spectacular - the Mediterranean, the Calanques (more shortly), sun, warmth, and a charming port. We did a bit of research the night before. Our plan was to park at the port, buy tickets for an afternoon boat tour of the Calanques, get moules/frites for lunch, and use any remaining time to wander the old town of Cassis. It worked!

We parked behind the boules court whose sign warns it is dangerous to cross. However, there were no boules (French bocci) teams playing today.

Cassis is set in the middle of the Calanques National Park. This park was established in 2012 and includes sea, land, Marseilles, and smaller towns like Cassis and Ciotat. A calanque is an inlet or cove that was formed thousands of years ago, when the Mediterranean sea was cut off from the Atlantic and almost 5000 feet lower than today. Rivers or streams flowing through the limestone carved narrow channels through the rock. When the Mediterranean Sea rose, these narrow valleys were filled with water, creating narrow inlets with beaches, rocky outcroppings, and towering walls. They are accessible by hiking, rock climbing or boat. Some have small beaches that are favorites with locals and tourists alike.

limestone cliff formed by the action of water

We arrived at 10:30 (hour and a half drive, mostly on the French equivalent to toll roads) and parked as planned near the ticket office at the port.

The trunk, and presumably the roots, of this pine tree are on the left behind the metal box. It is supported by iron posts. Most amusing. Why did it grow this way?

small sailboats in  harbor

The port

One of many beaches, this one right at the harbor entrance

We don't mean to deflate your balloon about the beaches of the Mediterranean, but sand is rare. These small stones are the next best thing.

We purchased tickets for the 2 pm tour of 8 calanques and headed to the tourist office where we got maps with a walking tour of the old town.

After checking out the beach, we walked along the breakwater leading to the lighthouse at the port entry.

The lighthouse of Cassis, at the end of the breakwater. A lovely place to sit and watch the sea.

There is a castle up on the top of the calanque above Cassis, but it is privately owned, richly renovated, and, if you have enough money, you can get rooms with breakfast at the castle.

the castle

We had decided to eat at 11:30 because everyone comes promptly at noon for lunch and we feared our chosen restaurant would be full. But when we walked by at 11:30, the entire staff was eating their lunch inside and told me they would be open at noon.

This is what sidewalk cafés look like once it is noon - nary a place to be had. And for many, this is a meal to be savored for an hour or two.

So we wandered for a half hour in the back streets of the old town, stopping at the site of an old bread baking oven (remember from Séguret?) that had been outside the city walls (for fear of fire) but was now part of a house.

street in the old town of Cassis - note the gutter running down the middle of the cobbled street to drain rain water down the hill

Sign outside the bakery museum

It was turned into a small museum with a docent who spoke excellent English and who could tell us the history and customs represented in this museum. It wasn't so much about bread baking, but more about regional dress. Nevertheless, it was interesting.

The bake oven at the rear with the bread paddle on the right. The owners of the town (at one time  the Knights of Templar) also owned all the services and you paid to use them (in bread, chickens, or whatever you had)

A quick look at the church...

Church in Cassis

When you don't have a yard, you hang laundry on a line outside your window.

With no room for gardens, one grows flowers any place there's room. Rarely do you find a completely bare street. 

Then we headed back down the narrow alleys to our chosen restaurant, "8 et Demi". I had read some TripAdvisor reviews of their moules/frites and their location at the top of the port on the Quai des Baux.

The only menu we needed was hanging outside the door.

While waiting for the magic hour of noon, we watched a fishing boat, fresh from the morning's outing, selling his fish "du jour" on the quai in front of our restaurant.

the fishing boat

their fish and scale

This is "baudroie" Provençal for lotte de mer, which in English is anglerfish. This fish uses a fishing pole like antenna to attract smaller fish which it then grabs in its ugly mouth. The fisherman was happy to talk to us about his fish.

By the time we sat down to eat, he was folding up his table and umbrella, having sold all his fish. To whom, we didn't really figure out. Seemed like locals, maybe a restaurant. We're not sure.

We took a table in the sun, ordered our mussels and french fries along with 2 "pichets" (1/2 liter pitchers) of house rosé wine (7 Euros each). The food was what we were looking for. Mounds of mussels in a sauce called "poulette" (recipe includes wine, parsley, crême fraiche, and chicken bouillon).

Our view at lunch

Our table at the brasserie "Le 8 et demi" (the 8 1/2)

Our moules frites - mussels and french fries, 

At 1:30, we collected our tickets and boat number from the ticket office and found places on the boat, the Moby Dick III.

Our boat

Already there were lots of people on the boat. Dave took my chariot to the car, bought more time on the 2-hour parking meter, and joined us on the boat.

An earlier trip, leaving port.

For an hour and a half, we bounced along the Mediterranean, and glided in and out of Calanques as our guide explained (in French) what we were seeing. We were given papers with English description of what we were seeing. But mostly, it was just amazing looking at these towering cliff faces - some 1800 ft high - and  the calm, turquoise blue of the inlets. One saw hikers and sun bathers everywhere. In order to get to the beach, you would need to hike/climb down paths for an hour from the nearest car park behind the Calanque. It is clearly a very popular thing to do.

At the end of the port, just out into the Mediterranean, is a stone quarry whose stones were part of many monumental building projects back in the day. So all these shapes were cut by men.

In this quiet Calenque, at the end, is reputed to be one of the best beaches in the world (according to some magazine)

This is April, and this famous beach is wall-to-wall people. Not my idea of a "best beach". 

Clark took this panorama of one of the Calanques

At the head of this Calanque is a small fishing village which is still in use today.

This area is, of course, very popular with climbers and we did see a couple of people going up the rock face.

There are 2 people climbing this rock face. Can you find them?

Here's the one on the upper part of the rock. 

Not the same climbers, these men had just finished climbing the Calanque we were driving over and were packing away their equipment.

The ride was very relaxing, warm enough in the sun and protected from too much wind by our location in the boat.

Nancy and Janis on the boat.

Clark scouting for good photo opportunities on the boat

Once back, we collected the car and headed home via Ciotat, the next town east of Cassis, roughly following a Michelin driving tour. It was so worth the small detour.

Another Clark Panorama. That is Cassis in the distance.

Overlook: Another view of Cassis behind Janis

Overlook: Yet another overlook with a view of Cassis

We drove a road called "Route des Crètes" that climbed and descended a narrow road cut into the cliff sides with lots of hairpin turns and incredible views of the landscape and seascape around us.

Our "route de Crètes" road. At least there are guard rails here. Passing was an adventure and looking over the edge made us woozy.

What goes up, must come down. Do you see our road with hairpin turns?

But Janis and I decided it was not a tour we needed to repeat. Our right feet were pretty sore from braking from the back seat.

We arrived home without incident (thanks Dave and Clark for the excellent driving) and decided to have aperos and salad for dinner.

It was then that we heard the news of Notre Dame and our hearts sank. We watched a bit of news and we can tell that the stained glass rose windows are threatened. We are sick at heart and afraid of what we will learn in the morning.

But for now, we are all exhausted and ready for bed.