The "Creme de Cassis"

It was decided that for the rest of our French adventure, Clair would only be entering into the passenger door of the car. It was safest for everyone. I joke, obviously. It was a very unfortunate series of events.

Another beautiful day's weather presented itself and rather than go on the hunt for further Roman articles we ventured to the coast for what promised to be a stunning hike around the Calanques National Park; A 20km stretch of brilliant-turquoise Mediterranean coastline featuring a series of high and rocky cliffs, coves and bays in and around Cassis, just south-east of Marseilles. Our journey there however was not without incident again, this time of our own making. In our best efforts to save a couple of Euros, we decided against adding to the ever increasing road toll bill, so opted for the country roads or so we thought! The route ended up taking us through the centre of Marseilles. Wow, it may be the 2013 European Capital of Culture, but it is also my 2013 European Capital of where not to drive through, as it was certainly chaotic and at times every man, woman and child for themselves! Also, when the only signs you are presented with are 'Toutes Directions' (All directions) and 'Autres Directions' (Other directions), you begin to ask some serious questions. Most notably, how do I get out of here!?

Eventually we escaped the horrors of central Marseilles, unscathed, and descended into the quaint cliff-side town of Cassis. There are two contrasting facts about Cassis: first, it has charm in abundance; secondly, it does not have half enough parking for the quantity of visitors it receives. No less than half an hour after we arrived, we finally happened upon a car park out of town. As it turned out this worked out perfectly for us, as it was at the start of the walk we were there for!

We set off around the coves and inlets on our first semi-serious hike of the trip. There were plenty of rise and falls along the way as the path weaved around harbours, down into idyllic coved beaches and up far too steep hills for my knees. We then reached the summit of the third bay before the fitness levels and the time were against us. Not that the virtual sheer descent wasn't enough in itself to put us off going any further, but in the interest of not burning out too soon we headed back the way we came.

Nothing more can really be said about the walk other than both the scenery and weather were beautiful making it another great day out. We are only sorry we don't have any photos to show you! This site describes the walk we did and has some pictures if you are interested.

We drove back to the Gite (paying the toll and avoiding Marseilles this time!) for our last night in Mallemort. Plenty of cheese, meat and beer were consumed!