A spectacular landscape, protected from mass tourism
The bad news is that ecstasy must be preceded by suffering (a maxim that the traveler tends to forget). The good news is that my pain threshold is so low that suffering can be like walking 40 minutes through the mountains to reach a beach. And ecstasy, arrive after the walk to a rocky cove in a Photoshopped Caribbean fantasy format.
Where? In the marseillais calanques , 20 kilometers of rugged coastline, a succession of small elongated bays, embedded between bare granite and calcareous massifs. A spectacular landscape, protected from mass tourism and summer fires by a restrictive traffic law: only the lucky Marseillais who have a house in the Calanques are allowed access by car . Visitors can only access them by car before 7 in the morning or after 7 in the evening. As the early morning is not contemplated, for something they are vacations, there is the option of parking the car at the entrance and walking through the steep mountains for at least half an hour, or more, depending on the cove.
Park the car, for example, on the campus of the University of Marseille, stop a French swimmer, ask him about the sea, listen carefully to his ambiguous talk and pretend we have understood your directions . Walking full of optimism, convinced that 40 minutes is really 15 minutes, and downhill. Don't get discouraged at the first fork. miss the way Climb a hill and from the top see another hill. Repeat the previous step successively until you lose faith in the very existence of the Calanques and think of the Mediterranean as an unknown sea of medieval cartography.
The Calanques are not for pedestrians
Wonder why you're walking without a map, but with a pink fridge, broken leper pilgrim sandals and a useless parasol impossible to plant on a stone coast. Nervously scrutinizing for secret clues the postcard of the Calanques bought the day before at the Port Vieux in Marseille, packed with spectators who, from the terraces of the bars, watched the match of the second day of the French league as if it were the final of the European Cup. Pulling up to a mountain road and asking your girlfriend to stop a car, for God's sake, someone have mercy on us. Get in the car and after the last curve, glimpse a bay of transparent water fortified by stone walls. Surrender to the euphoria of the dying hiker. You have reached your destination.
Walk through the stones in search of a lonely corner, from where you can access the water without having to stab your feet. Plant the towel on as close to a horizontal surface as you can find. Use the umbrella stick as a harpoon to catch fish. Look enviously at the sailboats docked in the bay and wish they would sink . To counteract this frustration, remember the shirtless bikers who the day before uncorked a hydrant in Marseille and turned the parking lot into an urban waterfall under whose spout a joyous thirty-year-old strutted like a shampoo commercial or a filmed music video in Brooklyn. Let the day go by. For reasons of heat, a prolonged dip every half hour at most is recommended.
After four or five hours in this position, walk back over the rocks to the small town, where the only nocturnal industry is games of petanque played in the street , women to one side, men to others, children watching, lazy dogs, grandparents painting their boats. Have a beer on the terrace of the bar, infinitely postponing the time to walk back to the parking lot of the University Campus, from where you left that morning towards the unknown.
Arriving at the car park and realizing that this is not your car park and that you do not have a name or any details that can help you find it. To stop a group of boy scouts, offer them a chocolate chip cookie and ask, without sounding too stupid, with all the dignity that your pink fridge and straw hat grants you, "ou est mon voiture".
View of the village of Cassis
Useful information:
Where to sleep: In addition to Marseille, there are two other cities on the Calanques coast: Ciotat and Cassis.
Cassis enjoy the location most beautiful and has the most refined hotels . It is a town with labyrinthine slopes that lead, with a bit of luck, to the port, a lively area full of restaurants. There is a tiny sandy beach, but the best part is its views of the castle and an imposing rocky massif, which takes on an unusual red hue at sunset. Jardines d'Emile , (Rooms with sea views: €109 (low season) – €149 (high season) is a small establishment by the sea, with a garden and swimming pool and the air of a Provençal family home. They have a second establishment, just next door, the Mahogany hotel, with more contemporary decoration.Both hotels share a private terrace-solarium next to the beach.
Another cheaper option is Ciotat , larger, less picturesque, but in return, less contrived . It also has beaches, a port and an abundant hotel offer at cheaper prices.