Wandering along the Mediterranean

After last night’s fabulous meal on the beach, we awoke to another day heating up on the Mediterranean. Our hotel was very quiet over the night, so everyone awoke well rested and ready to shop. Did I say shop?
Our first destination was Cassis that was only slightly up the coast from La Ciotat. As we drove through La Ciotat we discovered that they had a fairly substantial dry dock operation with a few good-sized ships yanked out of the water for repairs.

From there, we drove up over the hills to Cassis on a road that was excellent and yet scarily convoluted – not a guard rail in sight. The views of the first callanques between La Ciotat and Marseilles were pretty impressive. These callanques are the French equivalent of Norwegian fiords, the difference here being the temperature and the turquoise water. Oh my God, it was hot today – up to 33!


As we headed down into Cassis, we were impressed by how compact this tourist destination is. Driving into the town, we quickly discovered our first market of the trip. Talk about serendipity!


We had a nice walkabout down into the town from the limited municipal parking. That’s pretty much true in every town with a market. The goods for sale were surprisingly different from other market towns we’ve visited. It will be interesting to see if these products show up anywhere else.

There was also a beautiful beach in town with a few token nudies and lots of people in the water. Did I mention 33?

At the end of our walk, we stopped for some refreshment before continuing our journey. Like most beach towns, there were lots of cafes along the harbour and we found a good one.

Then, we headed towards Marseilles. We took back roads and headed as soon as we could towards the beach. Then, rather than heading towards Marseilles, we turned the other direction on a road that we knew would eventually dead-end. Back in 2006 when we visited a restaurant with particularly expensive fish – 8 Euros per 100 grams – we drove the same road. Guess what? The expensive restaurant was toast! We thought we would eat there – don’t question the thought process here – but it was not to be.

However, not far down the road, we found another fish restaurant, which also sold their fish by the 100 grams. We were much more savvy this time. We all chose a red mullet or rouget en francais, which are smaller fish, so we each had one, of about 250 grams each.
They served fish and fish only – with a baked caramelized tomato.



Following this fabulous meal we set off for Cairanne, with a quick tour through Marseilles for Jackie. No nails in the tires this time! You’d have to refer back to 2009 for that one.
The highway flowed well and we zipped off at Orange Sud for a shopping trip at Carrefour. We picked up the essentials that involved a lot of liquids. Some things never change.
Finally, just as the cleaning lady was finishing, we landed in Cairanne. It was like coming home, except a lot hotter.
So, unpacking slowly, we settled into our life here for the next four weeks. We sat on the terrace and watched the sun depart and then we sat and polished off a few more bottles.
C’est la vie!