11/10 – Marseilles to Cassis, On Your Own tour and Signature’s Chef Dinner

Sailing into Marseilles at dawn, we have a nice view of the lighthouse on the breakwater as we prepare for our next shore excursion – Cassis on your own. Some place new – and once again – a very small group who are going with us to the little tourist hamlet sandwiched between towering cliffs and little inlets called calanques. Better for us, these almost private tours.

It is an early morning start – at 8am – and we are quickly out of the port area, following the coastal road, the scenery is beautiful as we pass the War Memorial of the Orient and Distant Lands monument, the Batterie du Cap de Croix and Chateau d’if, the 16^th century castle and former prison on the islands out in the bay.

Turning away from the coastline, we head up into the mountains, through the gorgeous Calanques National Park, with cute little villages dotting the way and what looks like great hiking. Too bad we won’t have enough time for that today – we’ll have just enough to explore the town center – and as our guide/escort tells us, to take a boat ride around the calanques if we would like (extra charge of course).

The bus drops us off at the top of the town and we dutifully follow our escort/guide (yeah, I forgot his name if I ever knew it!) down to the harbor where he shows us our meeting point and gives us our return time. He also shows us the kiosk where we can buy our boat tour tickets, which doesn’t open for another 45 minutes. We definitely want to take the boat ride but have plenty of time for cappuccino first. With plenty of options to choose, we plop ourselves down at the most prominent café on the corner of the marina – Café Liautaud, which also happens to be a hotel, but hey, when in France. Served by, at first, a surly waiter, he then suddenly turned totally sweet and funny, providing us with a great time sitting on the promenade, watching the world go by, listening to him and finishing our cappuccino.

Not wanting to miss out on the boat, though, we take our leave of Café Liautaud and take up position just off to the side of the kiosk to wait until they open. A line is starting to form, and we want to be on one of the first boats at 10:45. At precisely 10am, the ticket office opens with us 4^th in line, successfully scoring our tour tickets. We’ve still got tons of time to spare, allowing us to wander around the harbor, walking out to the little beach adjacent to the marina while enjoying the street scenes and view up to the 13^th century castle perched on the rocks above the town.

Boarding our boat at the designated time, we are joined by 4 others from our tour group as we set sail to explore 3 calanques along the shoreline. Sailing out of the harbor we pass the green topped lighthouse, rebuilt after WWII in 1945 then out past the Cap Canaille, the 3^rd highest sea cliff in Europe at almost 1300 feet. We arrive at our first calanque, Port-Miou, really quickly. The name of the calanque means “well-sheltered from the wind,” which is pretty obvious judging from the 500 small boats that moor here year round.

Further around the rocky point, we pass hikers way up on the ridge and beautiful scenery all around. It is an absolutely perfect day to be out here on the water.

Further on we pass what looks like old stone houses built right on the water – there is nothing in our little English explanation flyer – and the guide is only speaking French, so….we’ll go with ancient Roman stone fisherman’s houses!

Then it is onto our 2^nd calanque, the little Port Pin, so named after all the Alep pine trees that grow between the rocks and require very little soil to survive.

Back out into the waters, continuing up the coast, passing gorgeous stoney cliffs and rocky points jutting out into the water, arriving at our final Calanque, En Vau, meaning “in the valley.” This is a favorite of climbers who clamber around the 400 foot cliffs surrounding the calanque. It is also incredibly picturesque with the 300 foot tall “God’s finger” rock formation on the opposite side, pointing to sky with the “Devil’s hole” cave at the base of the rock, or “his foot.”

And then it is back to the marina, with equally stunning views all along the way, including a stellar look at the old castle above the town.

Excellent hour-long boat tour, and a perfect way to spend some time here in Cassis. Afterward, we still have plenty of time to wander, walking all the way around the harbor front, perusing unopened restaurants and little shops. Returning to the main part of the marina, we end up heading back to Café Liautaud for a beer and wine before our designated meeting time in the square.

As it is still early when we arrive back to Marseilles, we dump our bags on the ship, hit the bathroom then go back out to explore the huge Cathedrale, La Major, a massive neo-Byzantine church built in the 1800s that is the largest in France. Majestically towering over us at the pier, the outside is that gorgeous combination of 2-tone stonework, while the inside is awash in tiles and mosaics and marble.

As a bonus, there is also an exhibition here by the French artist Marcoville, who began his career as a set designer but soon turned his sights to artistic creation, moving from wood to glass. The exhibit here is called the Celestial Lights and is completely comprised of different glass sculptures and formations. A “magical” forest of palm trees and other tropical vegetation – an allegory of the Garden of Eden – greets you at the beginning of the nave, where 600 reflecting angels float above.

All around the perimeter are 50 different glass representations of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus – that African versions are quite intriguing.

And in one of the side chapels, there is a massively monstrous hanging mobile type structure with 30,000 glass fish. Totally cool accidental-stumble-upon-find.

Back out in the daylight, we wander down to the harbor area to see the huge orange bear at the beginning of the square. This is a pop-art sculpture by Jayet, an international artist. It is the world’s largest bear, over 20 feet tall and weighing 7 tons. He is two-faced – one face looking at the past, the other looking toward the future with his signature wink. Completely out of character with the old baroque and renaissance architecture that surrounds him, but that’s ok – he is so, so cute!!!

Then it is back to the ship for our B2B meeting where we make our dining reservations with sweet Janine, this time choosing the Ernest Shackleton Chef’s table for the next leg. Different and fun! Then our normal gym, Living room schedule before heading up to the Signature Chef’s Table tonight. Only 6 of us at the table this time – lovely. And one of the best dinners we have had aboard.

It began with an amazing Smoked Raw Tuna/Salmon appetizer that was so incredibly good and the presentation was over the top – smoked right on the table behind us – with Suraj serving (and being shy in the video!).

We moved on to a Sunchoke soup that was really good and creamy. Then White Asparagus with a poached egg, the asparagus part being one of my absolute favorite things in Spain! Next was Prosciutto Wrapped beef tenderloin that melted in your mouth for me and grilled sea bass for Ed that was equally delicious. The finale was ad this melting chocolate ball for dessert that was to die for.