Les Calanques de Marseille

I wanted to visit les Calanques de Marseille since longtime so when T. from the hiking group proposed to explore that area as possible activity for the long WE of Easter  I jumped at the chance to come join.

We all left Paris on Friday by train or plane and met up at the hotel in Marseille, which would be our base camp for the following days. The Massif des Calanques is one of France’s great natural beauty areas. A spectacular series of looming white limestone rocks scored through with deep valleys, they’re the backdrop to a unique ecosystem, small fishing villages, hidden creeks with turquoise water and a wide range of sporting activities. This rugged terrain, streches from Cassis and Marseille to la Côte Azur. It is a beautiful area which looks like the Camins de Ronda, in Costa Brava.

We did 2 day hikes: always starting from the same point, on Saturday we went east to the beautiful fishing village of Cassis, where we had a super (and well deserved) dinner and on Sunday we went west to Marseille.  I think that we walked about 10 km each day but we did many stops to enjoy the landscapes so we always arrived at our destination at dusk. On Sunday, the famous Mistral was blowing so strong that from time to time I had to bend over in order not to fly away!

On Monday we had the opportunity to visit Marseille for a while before going back to Paris. It was my first visit to Marseille and I enjoyed a lot the historical part of the city. In 2.013 Marseille was designed as European Capital of Culture and the council had done a great effort to embellish the city. And of course, Marseille is a harbour city and having lived in two of the main harbour cities in Europe I felt a little bit like at home 😉

Ps. When I hike I am a lazy photographer so the pictures are taken with my camera but not by me. I got my camera back for Marseille 😉