Cassis: home of the calanques

Cassis is famous for its cliffs (falaises) and the sheltered inlets called calanques. In fact, the calanques line the whole south of Marseille and is a popular spot for rock climbing on the limestone cliffs, hiking, kayaking and other water sports. There are several hidden beaches that you can only access by foot, kayak or private yacht.  Among which Port Miou, Port Pin and En Vau are the more popular ones near Cassis.

Depending on weather condition, the Calanque national park access is controlled, so it is better to check the official site for latest update: http://www.ot-cassis.com/en/

Tourists typically tour the calanques by means of boat tour , sail tour or kayak. However, the tour boats do no dock at the beaches. Therefore, it was an easy choice for us to choose to rent a 2-seater kayak out to explore the calanques.

There are many kayak rentals around Cassis, but most are located rather far from the tourist information centre. It is also advisable  to make a booking in advance too as they may not be open everyday. For us, we first visited the tourist information centre to get a map of the town and they directed us to a nearby rental stall that was just opposite the street.

Lovely seaside town

 

Many restaurants facing the bay, among which Chez Gilbert is recommended

the beach is very popular as well

I am not sure if they charge any higher than average since they are conveniently located across the tourist info centre. The first guy we met at the reception spoke little English but by some combination of broken French, broken English and sign language, he gave us a good overview of the packages offered and sea condition, which was too windy that day. Following his recommendation we made a booking for the next day instead and opted for the 4hours rental slot. I wanted to visit the beach at calanque d’En Vau and was told one way will take approximately an hour assuming good weather conditions.

Thankfully on day 2 we had a (too) sunny weather and sea was pretty calm at least when we started.

PS: Sunblock is essential!

setting off for our kayak tour of the calanques

love weather though I got a sunburn

where you can turn into port miou

the most beautiful of the inlet beaches - En Vau. Took more than an hour to kayak from Cassis.

the reason why we chose to kayak

to have a picnic at En Vau

Went for a dip to cool down in the clear water

it's supposed to be a famous rock climbing destination as well

from the nearest parking, it takes more than 2 hours to hike here. And i met a mother who did that with her baby!

Signs telling you which inlet is good for swim

A more adventurous rock climber in the middle scaling the limestone

Lovely clear water

En Vau reminded me a little of Maya beach in Koh Phi Phi, Thailand, but minus the numerous tourist boats docked and sea of people on the beach (some leaving their rubbish behind). It is kind of a shame when a certain scenic place gains fame and becomes corrupted by tourism.  I hope that won’t happen to En Vau.

Another small intimate beach at port pin

Where to eat:

The south of France (in fact Marseille) with its vibrant fishing industry, is the birth place of the bouillabaisse dish. I’ll cover more about the dish in the next post on Marseille. One of the appellate restaurant by the bouillabaisse organization is Chez Gilbert in Cassis. Reservation is recommended especially for dinner.

First of many authentic bouillabaisses

Drive map of the day: