Marseilles and the calanques
Marseilles and the calanques de Cassis
My first interest in southern France was truly piqued months before my visit. While on a night cruise through Halong Bay in Vietnam, I made friends with a Frenchman from Sainte Tropez. He told me all about his home town and convinced me to visit southern France in the summer. The must visit place: the calanques de Cassis. He went on at length about the blue waters, great diving and the sweeping views. His enthusiasm sold me and five months later I was there.
The calanques du Cassis is a part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Stretched along the mediterranean, the easiest way to access the Calanques is via the regional capital of Marseilles.
The city is loaded with fascinating and diverse architecture of varied styles and a familiar gritty feel. Of course this is an old mediterranean city. Sunbaked, seabreezy and salted air.
Marseilles is the second largest city in France after Paris. Though the city is filled with African immigrants, there are many aspects of this town that maintain its place as a distinctly French city. Being home to the French staple Bouillabaisse (a seafood stew) and plenty of old school boulangeries quickly come to mind. Of course any fan of north African foods will have an abundance of options as well. Think tagines and couscous. Pizza trucks have become a thing in Marseilles. Largely attributed to its proximity with Italy, the pizza has become a major street food staple of the city. Oddly, the pizza here strikes me as more of a pizza bread than a traditional thin crusted pizza. I wish I could say that I mostly ate Bouillabaisse, premium fresh breads and couscous dishes. I wish I could say I sat al fresco near the Vieux Port and ate only the finest Mediterranean food that France can offer. Honestly I ate pizza atleast twice a day.
It's interesting to see how the city of Marseilles is described. Having a reputation for corruption, crime and being "rough and tumble", I found the city to be quite welcoming. Refreshingly, the city felt nearly void of tourists, even in the peak of high season. Major attractions and sites such as Notre Dame de la Garde and the Marseilles Cathedral were near completely empty during my summer visit. Marseilles also seems to be an excellent and perhaps underutilized point of access for the region. During my visit to Provence it seemed many of the other vacationers I met had flown into Nice.
The calanques, a long time escape for the residents of the city and region, has recently made it onto the international tourist radar. Despite their growong popularity, these sea canyons are still mostly a local delight. Cliff jumping is a big pass time here. The calanques are essentially a canyon in the seacliffs of the Mediterranean- but French!
As I've made clear before, I'm not much of an outdoorsman. But the appeal of these beautiful crevasses is on par with the Greek cyclades. The stones are white or grey but warm up in the summer sun and the waters are the shades of blue I expect to see in Santorini or Mykonos.
My personal favorites were En Vau and Sugiton. Give yourself an entire day to enjoy either. The hike in will likely last several hours but there are beaches along the trail on the way to En Vau that are well worth the swim. If you're coming from Marseilles, stop beforehand at a charcuterie and by the fixings for a piquenique. Just don't make the mistake we did and bring too much cheese. It turns out that cheese in a backpack on a hiking trail in the hot summer day can be quite a mess.
En Vau I found to be a more pleasurable yet strenuous hike while the views around the Sugiton were spectacular. The Sugiton offered higher views of the calanques and the boats that enjoyed them while the En Vau had more refreshing beaches along the way.
Access to both calanques was quite confusing as the signage was limited. Getting to Sugiton seems to be easiest via the parking lot of École supérieure d'art & de design Marseille-Méditerranée. This seems to be a popular point of entry for many of the day visitors.
The Sugiton provided the highest and most dramatic views of all the calanques. An easier and shorter hike means more vistors, though at no point did we encounter throngs of tourists. Remarkable considering midsummer is the high season in Provence.
En Vau was my favorite of the calanques. Though in my opinion, less photogenic than Sugiton, the calanques offers several spots to stop and cool off with a swim during the hike. The trails of En Vau generally have a busier feel than the other calanques but the numerous places to stop along the way makes the pace pleasant.
We accessed En Vau by parking near the south end of Avenue Notre Dame in the small town of Cassis and walking north along the road until we found the access trail at the Calanque de Port Miou. This underwhelming calanques must be traversed in order to access the main trail leading to En Vau. If you did not come with food or drink, buy water or other refreshments near the entrance to Port Miou. I strongly recommend stocking up on water, especially in the summer heat.
Once we found a sufficiently high lookout point, we stopped for our lunch piquenique. Nerd fact: piquenique is a French word. Just in case you couldn't tell by the pretentious spelling I chose. Originating from 18th century France, there is no definitive record of what dandy had the first picnic.
We pulled out our piquenique blanket and supplies. This was when we noticed the great tragedy - the improperly stored wedges of cheese had not been kept cool on our hike! Melting all over and covering a blanket in a nice layover of cheese fat, the cheese was no longer edible. Failing to reach maximum dandy level was a devastating blow but B and I soldiered on and managed to enjoy the charcuterie, fresh jams, mustards and breads. B had of course brought the obligatory bottle of French wine. When I think of France, hiking and nature are not what spring to my mind but the calanques experience was a definite highlight to my visit to Provence.
Marseilles and the Calanques du Cassis were a fantastic beginning to our road trip across southern France. My next blog post will focus on my trip to the dazzling and fabled Côtes d'Azur region. Be sure to also check out my equally pretentious blog post on the lavender fields of Valensole by clicking right here!
