50. Cassis

Cassis, a gorgeous, relatively sleepy (though frenetic in high summer I believe) fishing town east of Marseille. We went there for a boat trip around Les Calanques, deeply incised cliffs. I loved the whole atmosphere of Cassis and would very much like to return for an extended period. Perhaps in retirement? With longer to linger, there are many walks in the area that would be worth doing.

Click here to go to a webcam of Cassis.

Below: The village and port
Below: Cap Canaille, the highest maritime cliffs on the Mediterranean. This photo, unlike the painting below, doesn't show the ochre colour of the cliffs (wrong light!)
Below: I uploaded this picture of Post-Impressionist, Pointillist painter Paul Signac's Cap Canaille (1889). It was sold by Christie's in New York on 6 Nov 2007 for € 9,600,000! Signac stayed in Cassis between April and June 1889. More about this painting, and Signac -
click here.
Below: ...and it's off to Les Calanques...




Below: Calanque En-Vau, perhaps the most beautiful of all. Other than getting a private boat there, and swimming off the boat, you can walk; it's about an hour from Cassis.

Below: Back in Cassis. Is there anything odd about the small pink terrace house?
Below: Well, perhaps not the house, but this man looks a little too large for the small window!
Below: Fishing nets

Below: Colourful baskets in a shop in the town.
Below: After a picnic lunch provided by Nathalie, we had a swim at the town beach. The watre was just a little chilly - like the south coast of NSW in summer, really.

Below: Paddle boats for hire were fairly popular.

Below: This beach was made up of tiny pebbles. I don't think I've ever swum at a pebble beach before. It was damned hard to walk on, and to get out of the water from! I kept losing balance....and it HURTS the under-side of your feet.
Below: Post-lunch, post-swim snooze.
Below: A game of pétanque, the Provençal version of boules. The word pétanque comes from 'Les Ped Tanco', meaning "feet together" in the Provençal dialect of the Occitan language.