Cassis

"anyone seen a calanque around here?"

We met up with our friends Catie and Peter, who were on a two week tour of France, for a long weekend in Cassis and then Aix en Provence. We opted for the train instead of flying - which for the most part was a success... King's Cross station (where the Eurostar lives) is just 4-5 stops on the tube for us, and once there it is a much easier all around experience when compared to an airport (as long as you give yourself enough time...which we have yet to figure out yet)

Peter and Catie are great friends from our time in San Francisco -- and we have shared many fun food and wine experiences with them over the years... and this trip was no exception.

We had been to Cassis once in the past (with Craig and Rebekah) and had really good memories of it - which is why it was suggested for this trip 6 years later - and it did not disappoint.

The weather was perfect - hot, but not brutal (and when too hot we discovered a new item sweeping France... le ice bag), and the temperature of the sea was perfect... as was the color, and the views/perspective from swimming in the sea might be my favorite ever.

It was great to explore the town a bit - and we had a very fun, nice, and amusing meal at Villa Madie - which provides the full on Michelin macaron exerience

The one disappointment (besides the tuna tartare which I deftly avoided with my spot-on order of a quatre fromage pizza...) was that we were excited to hike up and see the calanques de cassis, which are supposed to be pretty spectacular... we geared up - ready for a hike and subsequent swim, and headed out the last mornign of our stay, only to find out that the calanques were closed due to high winds and associated chance of fire... we managed to see only one mini one before we were turned away by a ranger de foret.

view from our room - we jumped in to the sea from the bottom right area where a pool-type ladder was set up on a 'cliff' about 8 feet up

not a bad view... that big rock has not changed much since we took all of those photos last time we were in the area

the beach just down the road... which is why we were so glad to have our cliff & ladder set up...

Cassis harbor

mini calanque - as far as we know...

another view from the pool

a good 20 min of deliberations went in to deciding whether or not to jump from one of the flat areas you can see here... thanks for stepping up C - without you our 'helicopter arm' jumps might not have been seen...