Carelessly to Cassis

Based on a recommendation from a relative (you know who you are), I decided that I’d visit the nearby seaside town of Cassis on a day trip from Marseille.

I checked the weather forecast. Today was supposed to be sunny, and it was indeed sunny when I woke up. So I decided this was the day for Cassis.

Before going to sleep last night, I checked the transportation options to Cassis from Marseille. There are trains throughout the day. I read that the Cassis station is a bit of a way away from town because the train runs atop a plateau that’s too high and steep for the train to descend and climb again. But there’s a city bus from the station into town and taxis, or it’s a forty-minute walk.

There were two train departures, in particular, that were late enough that I wouldn’t have to set an alarm and early enough to have a decent number of daylight hours in Cassis.

I woke up, quickly (too quickly) checked the trains again, and saw that if I didn’t doddle over my morning ablutions, I could fairly easily get to the station to catch a train departing at 8:41.

Walking briskly to the station, as I got close, I saw I’d have close to 15 minutes to spare by the time I got to the station.

I have the SNCF Connect app. SNCF is the main passenger railway in France. Fortunately, the app has an English setting.

Close to the station, I used the app to buy my ticket.

I got to the station, looked at the departure screens, and couldn’t find my train.

I found someone who could help me in his broken English and my, at best, splintered French.

After some discussion, he asked to see my ticket. I showed it to him. In my rush, I’d mistakenly bought a ticket from the wrong Marseille station. I had bought a ticket from Marseille Blancarde, rather than from the main station, the one closest by far to my hotel, Marseille Saint-Charles, and hadn’t noticed my error.

The train I bought a ticket for originated at Marseille Saint-Charles and then stopped at Blancarde before travelling on. But it had already left Saint-Charles by the time I discovered my blunder.

The next train that stops in Cassis from Marseille Saint-Charles didn’t leave until 10:05. Cassis isn’t far. So that departure time would still leave me with a good part of the day in Cassis. I bought a ticket.

There’s a sort of convenience store with tables in the station. I bought an espresso and a croissant and took a seat to wait for my new train departure.

While waiting, I pulled out my phone to check my email, respond to a couple of comments on my journal posts from yesterday, and document my train ticket stupidity here. You’ve just finished reading that documentation. Let’s move on.

To Cassis. Allons-y.

Arrival in Cassis

As I said, Cassis station is a fair piece away from the centre of town. I looked at the city bus schedule posted by the train station. The next one wasn’t scheduled for more than twenty minutes.

I didn’t see any taxis at the station.

I opened the Uber app. It suggested that it would take twelve minutes to get a driver to me.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’ve found that, often, when you first query a trip, Uber will tell you how long it expects it will take for a driver to get to you. But it doesn’t seem to actually try to find a driver until you confirm the trip. Then, it will pause for a while to try to find a driver. Then the app will typically come back with a different number of minutes, usually longer. Sometimes a lot longer.

There have been a couple of times when I’ve tried to use Uber in places where it doesn’t have a major presence. The app told me a driver would be available in x minutes. Then, when I confirmed the ride, the app spun looking for a driver for quite some time until it came back and said there were no drivers available. Sorry.

The long and the short of it is, I didn’t bother trying Uber. It was a beautiful day in the neighbourhood, the scenery looked gorgeous, and it was all downhill from the station to the port of Cassis, where the action is. So I decided to take the little more than forty-minute walk that Apple Maps suggested as a walking route to Cassis’s port.

Of course, I did worry about how I was going to get back at the end of the day. I didn’t know if I’d be up for the long, almost entirely uphill climb after my day in Cassis. But that was several hours off. So, I told myself, I don’t have to worry about that now.

I said, “I DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THAT NOW!” Surprisingly, shouting it to myself did not magically develop a faculty to not worry about something until I have to. I worried it off and on all morning.

The walk into town was pleasant. For a piece, the road was one lane each way with a median between the lanes. The median held a row of trees that were naked for winter, but stately nevertheless. After a piece, the median disappeared, but a double row of trees bordered the walkway for another piece.

Along the way, there were vineyards on one side of the road.

As I descended the plateau, hills or maybe mountains loomed up off to the left. By the time I got down close to the seaside, they looked much more like small mountains rather than high hills. Their tops are rugged cliffs.

On top of the cliff overlooking the Cassis port, there’s an impressive old fortress. Or, at least, it looked like it might be impressive, but it was too far off for my old eyes to be sure. If what I found on the internet was accurate, and I was looking at the right thing, I think it now serves as a bed and breakfast hotel.

(Do you see the picture that I labelled “Cassis coast” somewhere below? The old fortress is on top of the cliff in that picture. It’s difficult to see the fortress because it’s so high and far away, but it’s there. Trust me on that.)

When I was walking down from the station, as soon as I got a glimpse of the sea, the song “La Mer” started playing on a continuous loop in my head. The same thing happened to me when I started thinking about and then planning this trip.

In Town

When I got into the central part of town, I stumbled onto a public square in the middle of the street. I picked myself up and saw that the square is a circle, but there are also other parts of the square off to the side of the street.

Today was market day. Vendors were set up in the square. It was a fairly eclectic market. People were selling fruits, vegetables, fish and seafood, meats, spices, a few prepared foods, and clothing. One vendor had a wide selection of olives.

I didn’t buy anything, but it added colour and liveliness to the already colourful and lively town. I spent a little while there absorbing the atmosphere. I’m very absorbent.

I then walked the short distance to the port. It’s lovely. Moored small craft fill the harbour. Surrounding the port, the buildings are low-rise and draw from a pastel palette. Their ground levels are filled with restaurants and bars.

Boat tours leave from Cassis to visit some of the nearby Calanques (rugged, usually deeply inset coves). They offer three excursions that take in a different number of Calanques. The longer tours take in the same Calanques as the shorter ones, but add more.

There is a company, maybe the same one, that offers the same boat tours to the same Calanques from Marseille. But because the Calanques are close to Cassis, the tours from Marseille take a lot longer. Plus, during the winter, they run the tours from Marseille only on Saturdays. Today is Friday, and the forecast for tomorrow calls for considerable rain.

So, I decided to take one of the tours from Cassis. I decided that. The tour company, or possibly more accurately, the sea, had another idea.

I walked past where the Calanques tour boats were moored. There were banners beside them advertising the tours, but no activity in sight. Nor could I see a ticket office.

There is a tourism office just a little farther on. I went in there.

I inquired about the Calanque boat tours. The guy behind the counter said they weren’t running today because the sea was too rough. I had looked at the sea. There were waves, but they didn’t look brutal to me. Then again, I’m land-bound by nature. What do I know about life on the sea?

The Calanques aren’t terribly wide, and their sides are rock cliffs. I imagine that makes for hazardous boating in rough seas.

Although, being coves that aren’t terribly wide and that extend a piece inland, I would have thought they’d be sheltered somewhat from the waves, but who am I to argue with the DLJSSIA (Don’t Let Joel See Stuff International Association)?

The guy at the tourism office told me that the Calanques are nearby and I could hike to them from Cassis. He said the closest one, Calanque de Port-Miou, is only about half an hour away. And it is mostly along city streets, so it isn’t a difficult walk, although there is one steep hill.

He said that the next Calanque over, Calanque de Port Pin, isn’t that much farther. And there is a trail between the two. He suggested Calanque Port Pin is even prettier and would be a great spot for a picnic on a sunny day like today. He said that walking to Calanque de Port PIn, and taking in Calanque de Port-Miou along the way, would take about an hour and a quarter out, and the same back.

He handed me the paper map on which he’d been marking the spots and routes. He then told me where there is a boulangerie (baker) where I could buy a sandwich for a picnic.

He also told me where there’s a convenience store where I could buy water.

I thanked him and went to buy a sandwich, but I skipped the water. I’m an old man. I intentionally dehydrate myself if I’m going to go on a long walk where there aren’t any toilets. But let’s say no more about that.

At that point, I still had an hour and a quarter hike to go before lunch. I normally split these posts at lunchtime, but it doesn’t make sense to divide my Calanques hike over two entries. So you can stop reading now, because I’m going to end this post here.

That is to say, you’re always perfectly free to read something else. Books can be good. A magazine works in a pinch. I’m told there’s some good stuff to read on the internet, but it’s so hard to find any. The point is, this is the end of this post.