Calanques

 Monday, 22 July

More blue skies and sunshine to greet us this morning - loving this weather.  Maree and Mel are keen to be doing things so today we went on a boat trip to view eight of the calanques and what a wonderful trip it was.  I went a bit mad with the photos today!
We pottered around at home for a bit and then made our way to the harbourside kiosk where we bought tickets and lined up for the departure on a largish boat with around 30 passengers.  It was even nice sitting on the top deck in the sun waiting for the boat to leave and watching all the activity around the port.


Ready for a boat trip

We sailed out of the port, past the lighthouse and across the bay, hugging the coast and heading west towards Marseille.   Between Cassis and the first calanque, Port Miou, there are waterfront villas with stairs down the rocks to the water's edge - very nice! 


Prime real estate!

We passed by Presqu'Ile (near our apartment) where there is a restaurant and plenty of sunbathers on the rocky shore - no beaches here.  The sea was  calm and  there was the gentlest of breezes.  Looking towards the hazy horizon we could see the masts of many yachts.

Presqu'Ile

Soon our boat turned into the Port Miou Calanque which extends 1.5 kilometres inland and is the deepest of the inlets.  It also is a  marina with 500 berths - all full I would say and lots of swimming and boating activity.  The local teenage boys seem to amuse themselves by leaping into the sea from scarily high spots along the cliffs.

Calanque de Port Miou

 
The high limestone cliffs extend up directly from the sea and we were amazed at the number of people picnicking on rocky ledges high above the water.
 

Picnic on the cliffs, Port Miou

 Port Miou is the departure point for sea kayaking trips and we saw dozens of these bright orange boats as we made our way along the coast.  It is not far from one calanque to the next and some have little beaches which are very popular.  Most of them can only be reached by sea or by a lengthy hike through steep terrain. There were plenty of small boats cruising around as well.
We sailed further along the coast and then entered another inlet where there are two adjacent calanques and where the cliffs are much higher.  

Entrance to Port Pin and EnVau Calanque.

The first of these, Port Pin, is delightful with pine forest close to the water and seems to be very popular with swimmers and sunbathers.

Calanque de Port Pin

After Port Pin we travelled a short  distance to En Vau which has high cliffs, a small beach and is a stopping off point for the sea kayak crowd.  It is pretty spectacular!

En Vau Calanque

As we made our way further along the coast the cliffs became higher and even more rugged with fascinating landforms created by wind and water erosion over millions of years.  The present appearance of the limestone calanques apparently dates back about 3 million years.

 

Coastal cliffs

Sea kayaks dwarfed  by the amazing cliffs of the Calanque coast

We visited several more calanques which were less populated by day trippers but were just as stunning.  The calanques area is more beautiful than I had imagined and there are endless opportunities for exploring the coves, caves and rocky shoreline.  No wonder the local authorities take such good care to preserve both the marine and the land environments.  It is possible to walk from Cassis to Marseilles along the clifftops although in summer these trails are sometimes closed because of the danger of forest fire.

Calanque de Surgiton - spot the boys about to leap from the rock!
 

 The final calanque visit was to Calanque de Morgiou which actually has a small settlement and a harbour but is not as attractive as some of the others probably because of the signs of civilisation.

Calanque de Morgiou

From here we sailed back to Cassis having thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this beautiful coastline.  It is such an asset to the people of the region as well as to visitors from afar.
 

Approaching Cassis - sailing schools in action

Back on shore Jess and I stopped off for lunch (Mel and Maree had already eaten and went to look around the shops), wandered down to the main beach and then we walked back to Plage de Bestouan where I left Jess to enjoy the sun and the sea and trudged up the hill for a nice dip in the pool.

Main beach Cassis

This is a beach?!!!! Plage de Bestouan

Cassis is lovely - highly recommended and I can imagine that Spring and Autumn would be great here too - especially for hiking on the trails in the hills. It is obviously  a very popular holiday destination with the French - not a lot of English language in evidence around the place.  It is lively without being over crowded and overly touristy.  I could come back here any day!

Across the bay to the main beach and the chateau on the hill - from Plage de Bestouan

My favourite view of Cassis-  from Plage de Bestouan