Places:

Cassis & the Calanques

Friday, 4 August 2023

A classic Provençal fishing port, a little east of Marseille, from my Tarn River canoeing trip I travelled south to Montpellier, then east past Marseille and the Parc national des Calanques to Cassis. The series of spectaular gorges known as calanques slash the coastline along the park and they’re the big attraction for Cassis. Virginia Woolf was particularly fond of Cassis.

I sign up for an eight calanques boat tour lasting one hour 50 minutes for €29. With an amazingly talkative captain although, of course, it’s all in high speed French so I don’t appreciate a lot of it. From Cassis the first one, Calanque de Port-Miou, is only a short walk from the town and features a boat harbour as well.

▲ Calanque d’en Vau is long and narrow with a nice looking beach.

◄ Dive boat off Calanque de l’Oule

This small rocky islet is named Le Torpilleur because it looks like a torpedo boat. Then there are people climbing over the rocks at Cap Sugiton and finally we U-turn at Calanque de Morgio, another settlement with a marina, and head back to Cassis. The calanques were definitely worth seeing and if I had another day in Cassis they would be nice to walk as well. ▼

▲ The Cassis harbour is full of boats, many of them traditional fishing boats, while in the background Château de Cassis has a history stretching back to the 13th century, but today it’s a luxury hotel.