Excursion to Cassis

Sunday 27 September 2026. Today we awaken in the French port of Marseilles. We are booked on a half-day excursion to a lovely old seaside town called Cassis.

Getting there though turns into something of a will we - won't we, as there has been a bicycle race on the narrow roads surrounding the hills above the town and there has been a bad accident that has closed the road, leading to some long queues and delays. We eventually reach the coach park - there is no way a coach could get down into the village.

So we hop onto a road train and ride down to the lowest spot we can get before we have to take to foot, emerging down the steps shown here to the right of the pink building.

First priority is a drink. Luckily there are plenty of cafes open despite it being Sunday. After the steps I need to catch my breath before trotting off anywhere.

The marina is full of rather more modest yachts than Portofino, but sadly still out of range of my pocket... In fact about the only boat within range of my pocket would be an inflatable and I've watched too many programmes about lifeboats to fall for that option!

We have a slow wander up into the town centre, where a market displays a mixture of goods and crafts to tempt the traveller and Miss Franny disappears into the same biscuit shop we visited on our last visit here in 2007. We came out loaded with several bags of biscuits...

We had time to walk slowly around the marina. It's warm and already I'm wanting another drink! We settle for a tub of ice cream each as an alternative.

Then we take a seat near to the meeting place for the walk back up to the road train. I knew that I would never manage to keep up with the rest of the people in our party so I had a word with the guide and we set off up the hill. We got to the road train stop just as he arrived with another train load of passengers and soon the rest of our party was seen coming up the hill.

Back onboard the ship in Marseilles with the church of Notre-Dame de la Garde High on the hill la Garde for which it is named, it can be reached by yet another of those little road trains. It has an all-round 360 degree view of the city and from it, with a good pair of binolculars, you'd be able to spot us ignoring it for the more pressing needs of lunchtime...

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Cassis Town

Wednesday 29 August 2007. We move away from the beach and into the town itself. The town of Cassis is quite busy this morning. There are market stalls set up, so perhaps it is market day.

A biscuit shop! There was such a wonderful smell coming from it that we had to go inside just to soak in the flavours. They obviously bake a lot of their stock themselves in the shop. Their way of selling was fun too. You could buy an empty decorative tin and cram as many biscuits as you could fit inside all for one price! We did!

We come out and of course have to immediately try one of the biscuits each! The market is a riot of colour and bustle. All sorts of food, meat, vegetables, breads, fruit and of course fish. But lots of other goods also from textiles to CDs.

Did I mention the hand-painted tiles, flowers and pot plants and rolls of linoleum floor covering? Well I have now! Not to mention tablecloths that come in a choice of rectangular, round or oval!

The pigeons on the ornamental fountain make a very appealing picture. Cassis (you do not pronounce the final 'S') is twinned with our own Burnham-on-Sea. The site was first occupied 600-500 BCE by the Ligures (the Italian Liguria region was named after them). I love a sentence from Wikipedia: "...Cassis could have been inhabited by the Greeks, though no proof has yet been found." Brilliant. It could also of course have been inhabited by a three-legged race of pygmies from Planet Bxsvi but strangely no proof of that has been found either...

It's time to walk back to the meeting spot and as we waited for the coach I took a photo of the expensive looking villa or hotel high up on the cliff.

We got back from Cassis to the Island Star and found our favourite spot by the pool. I'd got through the Bernard Cornwell book and was starting Bill Bryson's "The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid" and so was chortling happily when a look of concern came over Fran's face. Cissie and Ada were struggling to the table. Cissie was bent over to the right and Ada was holding onto her as they crawled over. I went over to help.
"What on earth have you done?"
"It's only my back, it's gone!"

We got her sat down - lucky I was there otherwise she'd have done a sideways somersault over the arm of the chair... I'm still not sure exactly what she'd done but: "Heineken Light - two for one!" she hailed a passing waiter. After half an hour she was as right as rain. It really must reach the parts other beers can't...

"Are you going on the talent show?" asked Ada. I was a day late in asking if I was going to and I wasn't all that bothered anyway.
"Is it..." Cissie leaned over, either because of her back or to look into my eyes in a vague hope of reading my mind "...Grumbleweeds?"

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Cassis Beach

Wednesday 29 August 2007. We are in the French Riviera town of Cassis and after walking around the harbour with its pastel houses, colourful boats and Gallic atmosphere we set out to walk to the beach.

Cassis beach was a clean sandy beach and from the looks of the lines running across it, it had been raked or smoothed out by a tractor. A row of buoys marked out a safe bathing area and there was a row of towels, beach umbrellas and sunbeds, with an equal number of people either under them or lying on them. Well... under the umbrellas and lying on the towels or sunbeds. We didn't see anyone lying on top of an umbrella...

It wasn't gorgeously sunny, but it was bright and it was very warm, well up in the 30s and certainly enough for us to look for somewhere to sit for a while in the shade with a long cool drink. We found this place, a small cafe sitting on the beach by the harbour and we ordered a drink and settled down for a while to watch the total lack of interest in the row of pedallo boats lined up along the sea's edge. We lingered for a while and then decided to use the loo before moving on. There were two wooden doors marked "Privé" and two rather large keys hanging on the wall outside. A chap from our coach had taken key No.1 so Fran therefore took key No.2. "Non! Non! Les Hommes en deux!" came a cry from the cafe.
"He wants us to swap," said Fran. So they did. However they didn't swap keys and these were needed to lock the doors from inside! "I had to sit stretched out holding the door shut!" Fran complained.

I found out later why men had to use No.2. It had a hole in the ground and a porcelain surround with two places for your feet. Ugh! But someone might have piddled over those little raised platforms! I stood behind the porcelain and piddled over them myself, feeling vindicated when the flush failed to wash over the foot platforms...

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Cassis Harbour

Wednesday 29 August 2007. After our unexpected walk in Marseilles, the coach drops us off in Cassis where we have to take a small road train from the coach park to the town.

As we walk from the road train we start to chill out and our hearts lift at the sight of the harbour. We have free time here in Cassis to wander round on our own and enjoy the sights and sounds.

We find that there are three distict areas of the town: the harbour, the beach under the cliffs beyond the harbour, and the town itself. We'll have a look at each but for now we set off to look round the harbour.

Standing between the beach and looking back towards the town presents a scene of pastel coloured buildings and neat rows of small boats.

You can't get fish more fresh than this! The fish were being brought straight from the boats to stalls along the harbour's edge and were chopped up on the spot and dropped into plastic bags for eager locals. There seemed to be an equal number of buyers and interested and curious onlookers at each stall.

It was still quite early, the cafes were busy bringing out tables and chairs to set them up on the pavement in front of their doors. There was much shouting of greetings as locals passed each other. Altogether a pleasing place to be - unless you were a fish...

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