Cassis

Today is Saturday so Lisa and Adam finally have a day free of work!  We all went to Cassis in the car, to see a little coastal town.  It is a few kms east along the coast from Marseille, and a popular little place from which to visit the "Calanques", which is the name of the rugged rocky coastline nearby.

Posing by Cassis harbour.

Quite a few on the beach, but not many swimmers.

There is a small fleet of tour boats here, selling tours of the nearby "Calanques".  You can buy a three-, four-, or five-Calanque cruise.  A Calanque is basically a narrow, deep inlet in the rocky limestone coastline, providing a little sheltered anchorage and perhaps a beach.  There is walking track access but no roads.  We signed up for a three-Calanque cruise and boarded this boat.

Passing the lighthouse at the harbour mouth.

Inside the first calanque.  No beach, but basking and swimming off the rocks.

There was a cool breeze and a heavy chop which threw the boat around a bit, but inside each calanque it was calm and sheltered.  Some had yachts anchored, and they all had people basking or swimming off the rocks.  The water looked very nice, blue and clear.

Calanque d'En-vau, the last one.

Calanque d'En-vau has high cliffs all around, and a beach at the end.  The beach looked quite crowded despite the two-hour walk it takes to get there.  Also the high cliffs had attracted quite a few climbers.

Climbers on the calanque.

Back at port, posing with a cruise boat behind.

Just east of Cassis rises the impressive Cape Canaille, the highest headland in France.  Its sheer cliffs drop almost 400 metres into the sea, and you can drive up there and park while you edge your way toward the edge of the huge drop.

Looking back at Cassis from up on Cape Canaille.

Lisa high above the Mediterranean.

The road up the cape was busy with cars, bikes and walkers, and where we stopped there were climbers fiddling with their ropes and pitons, presumably thinking of going over the edge.