May 10 - Cassis and Cap Canaille

We docked this morning in Toulon, France which is east of Marseilles on the Côte d’Azur.  It’s a pretty large city with a population of more than half a million and it’s also the home of the French navy. It was here that during WWII after the Allies invaded North Africa, the Germans occupied what previously was part of “free” French (meaning Germans hadn’t occupied it) territory.  To prevent the Germans from getting the French fleet, it was scuttled  off Toulon. Only 4 French submarines escaped.

But, I didn’t stay in Toulon. Instead I took a tour to Cassis, a small town about 15 miles east of Marseilles.  It is essentially a fishing and boating village.  The ride from the ship was through lovely green countryside planted with vineyards and fields of vegetables.  Our tour didn’t involve seeing any churches, museums or historic landmarks.  It was just to give us an opportunity to enjoy this charming town.  Frédéric Mistral, who was a French writer and a winner of the 1904 Nobel Prize for Literature, wrote “Who has seen Paris but not Cassis has seen nothing.”

Our guide (who was German) took us to the main square on the promenade along the small harbor and told us what time to meet there.  It was a gloriously sunny Saturday and there were lots of local people out strolling along.  This was part of a long weekend for the French.  Thursday May 8th was the 80th anniversary of VE Day and a national holiday in France.  Many people took Friday off too and made it a long weekend.

I walked through some of the little back streets, alleys really, and took photos of doorways and flowerpots embedded in the stucco walls and decorative tiles placed here and there by old wooden door frames.  After I’d explored the few streets that didn’t require a march up the hillside, I walked back to the waterfront which had one café after another, most very busy, and found a table in the shade and had lunch.  I asked the waitress what was good there and she recommended the dorade, which is a type of seabream.  She didn’t steer me wrong.  After a short wait I was presented with a whole fish which had been deliciously grilled along with a grilled fennel bulb and some polenta.  The waiter expertly deboned the fish.  It was absolutely delicious.  I sat and watched the people go by with a slight breeze blowing and had a very enjoyable lunch.

I had to put this one here because the name tickled me - It's "Jeff's Fish Store"

Every French town seems to have a plaza with a fountain overlooked by an old fort and Cassis is no exception

Lunch

Just to prove I was there

At our appointed time we gathered and made our way to our bus for the ride back to Toulon with one additional stop, Cap Canaille.  Our driver Jean Phillippe did a remarkable job taking us up a very steep and very winding road to the top of what is the tallest sea cliff in France.  Cap Canaille is not quite 1300 feet high and from the top one can see the town of Cassis on one side and Le Ciotat on the other.  There are no handrails at all at the cliff's edge and the ground is rocky, loose sandstone.  There were people who walked right to the edge to take pictures, but I’m way too big a chicken to do that.  I got as close as I dared which was not that great for getting a spectacular view, but that’s all I could manage.  The area around the summit is a national park and there were lots of bushes with pretty wildflowers.  I don’t know what they were but they looked beautiful against the backdrop of the blue sky and the rust-colored ground around them.

That's Cassis as we made our way up to the summit

These are the crazy people who got right up to the edge

This is the best view I could get of Cassis below

This was what the terrain looked like.  It didn't reassure me at all.

Don't know what they are but I thought they were pretty.

After a short stop we reboarded and drove back to Toulon.  On board I had a nice evening spent with friends and a show with a hilarious British comedian I’d seen on last year’s cruise from Australia to Vancouver.  He made me laugh a lot then and tonight I was just as entertained.  Laughter is a wonderful thing.  So that was my day. Tomorrow I’m taking a trip down memory lane. À bientôt.