Cassis France – Southern France Surprise

Cassis isn’t a typical town that comes to mind when folks talk about Southern France.   When you have Nice, St. Tropez, and Cannes as neighbors its probably tough to get some attention.  We actually liked Cassis better than all those towns.  We found out about it from one of my San Diego friends that is married to a French girl.  Also it turns out that Rick Steve’s talks a bit about it as well in one of his France tour guides.  We really enjoyed how the town didn’t have any type of touristy vibe to it, but had a lot to offer.  One of the days we went on a hike in a nearby natural reserve area that they call the Calanques, which translates to creeks.  These “creeks” are a lot different from what we would call a creek in America as you can see in the pictures below.

We continued to enjoy the French cuisine and the French wine that we toted with us from Provence the previous few days.  The highlight meal was at a place called Calendal.  It was tough to get a reservation at this restaurant so be warned, but it was definitely worth the trouble.  We also had a bad meal one night, which I guess is bound to happen…. I can’t remember the name of that place, but I will post it when I do.

This Cassis post is the last of our 4 part trip to Southern France in Spring 2012.  This trip also included Côte d’Azur, Monaco, and Provence.  This entire trip was dream like with all of the amazing sights and distinct food/wine.  To be honest its a place that never crossed my mind, while living back in the States.  We are extremely lucky to have these opportunities to enjoy such places.  The only problem with seeing places like this is the realization that there are thousands … probably millions of beautiful places like this tucked around the world.  It is overwhelming and the saying “So much to do… so little time” has never been more true.  It makes me antsy just thinking of all the destinations that we “need” to see surrounding us here in Sicily.  I need to stop writing and start planning our next trip!!! ..Maybe this is why I am just now writing about a trip we took early last year.. 🙂

Check out the pictures below.. this place is an amazing!

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The beach we finally made it to and spent the day at! Worth the hike
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The favorite wine of the trip
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Unreal little harbor
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Nice little beach in the town of Cassis
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Look at how clean the streets are!!! Hopefully all of Sicily is reading my blog and seeing this picture.
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View of Cassis harbor from hotel room.. I can get used to this!
Sometime you just have to make parking available!!
Sometimes you just have to make parking available!!

 

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Great bakeries as usual in France
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Closeup of some boats in the Cassis harbor
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Made it to the beach! Hiking in sandals is not recommended!! ha.
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Closeup of the water… unreal!!
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Jess hiking the calanques
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Calanques navigator extraordinaire 🙂 Dont worry I won’t quit my day job.
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Possibly the best hot dog stand location in the world!! And a good hot dog.
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That water coloring never gets old
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Menu at Calendal
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Calendal prix fixe
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Wine list at Calendal. We enjoyed all the local Cassis wines during this part of the trip.

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Nos moules farcies au beurre anise. Basically mussels Genovese with an anise butter. These were very good and something that I will have to try at home since we are surrounded by mussels in Sicily.

 

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Early birds at Calendal

 

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I just requested the best fish dish that they had that night… and this didn’t disappoint.

 

 

4 Replies to “Cassis France – Southern France Surprise”

  1. This blog is the best scrapbook ever – so glad you are taking the time to document it all, Nick! Can’t wait for Paris, too 🙂 And, you are right way too many beautiful sites to see over here, it’s overwhelming…I guess we’ll never be moving back. LOL!

  2. Just as an FYI for the fellow Catania locals out there. Blue Express has direct flights this June-August to Nice France. I saw them as low as 69 euros.

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