We spent four days in Cassis, a small town on the coast below Marseilles.
It's a town we'll always remember for
Our Grandparents
and
the Calanques,
the two new landscapes in our trip to France.
My Grandpa and I walking along the harbor.
Cassis Harbor
It's just plain fun to have company!
Together, we went to the beach and made stone towers.
My dad is putting on his SIXTEENTH stone in this photo. World record. Daddy thinks it should be an Olympic sport.
My record was 13.
Frances wanted to take just one little teeny tiny bag of rocks home.
Mommy said no. Frances was bummed.
A little jet-lag attack for my grandpa.
But my grandma was still awake and talking!
We walked around town, ate ice cream every day. My two favorite flavors are Creme Caramel and Stracciatella. Frances loves Stracciatella too. Daddy loves coffee and Mommy loves dark dark dark chocolate.
Frances walked to the end of the harbor wall to watch some children (the oldest was about 8) be towed back in from crazy sailing. They were way out there in the waves and the wind. Frances says she loves the ocean because she likes to "see the tiny boats WAY out there."
I like the ocean because the sea is very blue where you are and the sky is very blue where you are, but where they meet at the horizon line they both have faded into each other, both a blue-gray.
We went out to dinner to small side street restaurants. Really tucked away.
My dad says, "It was surprising to find all those restaurants. You see the main strip and you think that's your only option but then you start wandering the narrow streets behind and find not just a couple of restaurants but dozens of restaurants and definitely the finest restaurants in Cassis."
Every restaurant we went to, we got into a wonderful conversation with the table next to us. The conversations usually bored Frances...especially when they were around 11PM
All of our trip in Cassis, Frances wanted to go on this one little ride. Finally, the last day, she chose the open airplane. In the race car behind her there was a 4-year-old with his pacifier in his mouth and his hands on the wheel. My dad says, "The first day, Frances was DYING to go on it. The second day she realized she was probably too old for it and SHOULDN'T go on it. The third day she knew she just had to go on it. And she went in style, waving, grinning, even popping her umbrella open for the final few laps."
My mom says, "It's special sharing our time with Mary Ann and Dick.
Of course, they're gracious and loving and game.
But part of what I love is having two sets of eyes on us in our little orbit.
Somehow it feels good to know someone who loves us
is watching us love each other so well."
The Calanques.
Wow.
They are amazing.
They are like a mixture of the Grand Canyon and stacks and stacks of bleached bones.
Climbers love this place. Hikers walk from Cassis to Marseilles along all the Calanques. Divers explore the water.
Calanque means inlet or fjord.
They were formed by old streams that cut canyons in the limestone. When the Mediterranean Sea rose, the canyons filled up with water.
My dad says, "20,000 years ago, people loved it too. In fact there are caves submerged underwater that are covered with engravings and paintings."
We walked to the second Calanque Port Pin. To get there, it's a rocky trail and then a steep slope down to the Calanque. At the end of the calanque was a beach.
The water felt just as cold as Donner in April.
My dad says it was warmer than that but do you see any photos of him in the water?
Even though the ocean's cool, I don't really like the salt.
#1 When the water is really cold, I naturally just open my mouth underwater.
So that's disgusting.
#2 And when I'm rinsing my hands after playing in the sand, they stay sticky.
I'm more of a fresh water girl.
I could take sand over saltwater but Frances would take saltwater over sand on her feet anyday. She hates getting her shoes on with sandy feet so she has to rinse them in the water and have my mom carry her over onto the towel.
Frances also cannot stand getting the soles of her shoes dirty. She wants to keep her FANCY shoes clean and new. She was tiptoeing everywhere and finally made Daddy go get different shoes so she could walk around more easily. She said about her fancy shoes: "I feel like my feet are in bird cages. I want them to be free."
BACK TO THE CALANQUES
This is the first Calanque, Port Miou. This is the locals' harbor for sailboats.
All kinds of people--
young, old, families, climbers, hiking clubs, tourists and locals--
walk to the first few calanques.
Thousands of people a day in the high season.
I'm glad I'm here in the off-season.
My mom says,
"Jeff and I ran each morning at dawn through the Calanques for hours and hours.
And because the French were still digesting their late night dinners,
we got a private showing.
Not a soul was walking the trails below those white, cleaving cliffs.
One of the most spectacular places I've ever been is the Calanque d'en-Vau.
It is the deepest of the Calanques, with sheer cliffs hundreds of feet high.
We accessed the inlet by hiking down a steep canyon with slippery natural ledges and loose scree.
Jeff kept saying, 'Remember, knees over your toes!'
I just held my breath the whole way down.
The depth of the canyon was, well, breath-taking.
The blue sky intensified the deeper into the canyon we went.
It is divine to feel so small.
Maybe even literally.
We ran along the trail at the bottom of the canyon until we reached the water."
Daddy says, "It was so private for such a grand scape.
It's so rare we get to experience those types of popular stunning landscapes without people."
Mommy says, "Rocky beach, water lapping, white sheer rocks rising from the green water.
The two of us, ALONE, sitting on the beach in awe.
And not a camera in sight.
DAMN!
I just couldn't haul that thing around on those runs! Check out this if you want to see more:
Scroll down the page and click on PAGES to see photos of the different Calanques.
The Calanques become a National Park this year.
Hip hip hooray for France."
Goodnight!
Oh...This is a very typical french parking style...
i feel small too.
ReplyDeletesmall within the rocks. small to the merging of sea and sky.
small within the circle of family that has grown to just the right size.
small while reading from the words that have become so grown up.
small is a good feeling. it lets more in. it allows for more to be initiated.
i loved your faces maryann and dick. loved your strolls, your smiles, your happiness.
gorgeous place. but the most breath-taking picture was of the two young girls at the end. you look like you've grown up 10 years. gorgeous. just gorgeous.
ReplyDeletelove to ma and d too.!