Three towns on the French Riviera which you should visit

Three towns on the French Riviera that you should visit

Hello everyone! Today we are changing country and we are moving onto France, specifically, the French Riviera, where I had the pleasure to spend 4 months whilst studying with the Erasmus+ grant at the University of Aix-Marseille. Whilst I was on Erasmus, as I have told you before, I visited several small towns in this beautiful area and today I am going to talk to you about three of them: Cassis, Martigues and La Ciotat. I am sure that you wouldn't have heard of all of them, so today you are going to discover places which aren't as touristy, located in the beautiful French Riviera. Let's start!

Cassis

Cassis is a small town with barely 8,000 people living there. In summer it is full of tourists who sunbathe and swim in the warm Mediterranean and in winter, it is completely empty. Here you can find the famous "Les Calandques route", which I spoke to you about in a previous blog. It is a route which goes through different dreamy coves, with clean and crystal-clear water, which I also had the pleasure to go around. But this is situated in the outskirts of Cassis, where there are hardly any people because it is a lot of effort to get there.

Therefore, today I want to talk to you about, in part, the "city centre" of this little French town. Thus, something that stands out about the centre of Cassis are its little houses which surround the port all the same but different at the same time, with pastel tones which give a fairly uniform colour range. In the lowest part of the buildings, I could see how they sold fresh fish and seafood or served it directly in their restaurants, where they had the menu of the day written with chalk on the blackboards. As you can imagine, the fishing culture is very strong so you can see the fishermen going out in their boats first thing in the morning. Something that you have to do in Cassis: get lost and wander around its intertwining streets. You will find small clothes shops (some of which are really expensive), ice-cream shops and souvenir shops too. From there, Cassis has an authentic atmosphere.

As for the Cassis suburbs, there are vineyards, plots full of green colours which are most definitely a complete representation of the French Provence. I was lucky enough to see all of this from the bus that I took from the station to the city centre.

Something that I think is interesting is that the famous writer Virginia Woolf was living here for a few weeks and she was so wowed by its charm that she actually included the town in several of her works. But Cassis hasn't only attracted this British writer, but also Frederic Mistral, a French writer who was born in Provence and has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, was wowed by his visit to this little town on the French Riviera. In fact, one of his famous phrases is the following: "Qui a vu Paris, s’il n’a pas vu Cassis, n’a rien vu", meaning anyone who has seen Paris, but hasn't seen Cassis, hasn't seen anything. This quote simply demonstrates that this town has a unique charm, that not even the very own city of love and French capital can beat or overshadow.

As well as the city centre, I also want to talk to you about some beaches and viewpoints that you can't miss out on.

Plage du Bestouan

This was one of the first beaches where the water really amazed me. It was first thing in the morning, September and there was barely anyone on the 100 metre stretch which made up the Bestouan beach. The blue colour of the water invited me in for a nice morning dip. You should know that in general, these aren't sandy beaches, they are made up of small stones, so some decent beach shoes wouldn't go amis. I loved this beach and it has a beautiful area where there was a natural stone walkway with a metal fence and steps to access the sea. In front, this white coloured house which must be worth millions, since waking up here in the middle of summer with the sun shining must be practically priceless. Here is the photo I took.

Port-Pin beach

It is another beach which is located a bit further away, completely in the outskirts. It is very small but welcoming at the same time and it is beautiful because it is surrounded by nature, there are no buildings, noises or roads. It is one of the beaches with easier access so when we went there, despite it being low season, it was quite busy. There were people who had gone there with their kayaks. The truth is that it must be amazing to go along the whole French Riviera on a kayak. Here are some photos so you can judge for yourselves.

Le Cap Canaille

Finally, this small headland is situated on an extreme of Cassis, it is worth seeing simply for the incredible views that you can see by going up to the top. It stands out for its big cliff, since it measures almost 400 metres, which is very impressive. It is quite famous, in fact, our university organised trips to Cassi and Le Cap Canaille was one of the most interesting places. From here, watching the sunset is like being in a dream. Right here, this headland is situated between Cassis and the following town which I want to talk to you about: La Ciotat.

La Ciotat

I was able to visit this little town of La Ciotat in winter, and of course even though it would have been a lot better in the summer, being there without anyone else was incredible. Despite the fact that comparisons are awful, I have to say that La Ciotat is nothing on Cassis; however, if you have time, there are certain areas and places which are worth visiting.

Like Cassis, the fishing culture has a huge place in this marine town. We could also see small boats in the port, which just in front were the restaurants were seafood is the star ingredient for all of their dishes. So, both towns follow the same scheme. It is true that in La Ciotat we can see far bigger boats, where rowing boats were replaced by powerful engines.

After going around the town, its narrow streets and window shopping at its shops, we decided to explore the nature of this town. Here are some photos of the city centre, where we had a nice coffee at the end of the day in one of the cafes. If you look hard, it was really close to Christmas time, so the doors of the houses where already decorated with Christmas phrases and slogans that wished us a Merry Christmas.

Cap de l'Aigle

We visited Cap de l'Aigle. As you can see, the shape of these rocks is very unique. They are sedimentary rocks. It reminds me of when on the beach the children kick down their sandcastles and when the sand falls into the water, it leaves this perfect shape. The truth is that the whole of this area is full of these really strange rock shapes. One of the first beaches that we visited was called Plage de Cap de l'Aigle which was deserted, but I am sure that in the summer it would be great to go swimming in such an original landscape.

The whole route that we walked along took about 30 minutes and gave us landscapes such as the following ones, where the shapes of the rocks kept becoming weirder and weirder. Some seemed as if they were about to break off and fall into the sea. It was here where we could see people kayaking in the middle of winter. If you concentrate, this day was quite cloudy but there were some points of the water where you could see the turquoise-blue which was clean and clear.

Calanque de Figuerolles

After, we went to one of the prettiest coves in the city. It is called Calanque de Figuerolles and it is beautiful when it is sunny. The colour of the water is simply perfect and the whole of the surroundings are super wild. Look at the strange shape that the final rock takes, at the top of this small mountain.

Right at the start of the beach, which you can access by stairs, there was a beachbar which had a poster up saying "CLOSED. " In summer, it must be great to have a drink here, surrounded by trees and nature. We could see that in this beachbar they also had an accommodation area, but as is expected, nobody would want to stay there at this time of year.

So, we were there the whole afternoon and when the sun came out, the temperature was perfect and we could even wear short sleeves.

Parque de Mugel

We also saw the Mugel park, where there is a botanical garden with different plants and trees. It is situated very close to the beaches so you can't miss it. Really everything is located on the same stretch. I also recommend visiting it if you have time.

In short, I really liked La Ciotat since we had a different kind of day in the middle of winter, enjoying the sun and the sound of the sea, as well as some very strange landscapes, as you have been able to see. Let's move on to the final town!

Martigues

Finally, Martigues is one of the towns which we visited on a grey and rainy day, but wherever a group of Erasmus students go, they bring joy and colour there. Martigues is another fishing town and if I may, some of the streets remind me of Venice since they are full of small boats situated to the side of houses which are painted in different pastel colours. The city is divided into two by a river and it has different bridges which are quite strange. Here I'll show you some photos that I took that day.

Right after taking them, it started to rain so we decided to go to a cafe and have a nice crepe with nutella. So tasty! We went quickly because the bus line that stopped there weren't very frequent. In short, visiting Martigues was quite a random plan but I always like visiting places which aren't as touristy. If you have time, I recommend going.

And that is the post for today! I fancied showing you these three towns in the French Riviera and so that you could see that this area in France doesn't just have luxurious places such as Monaco or Nice. In fact, for me having visited both, I would definitely go for Cassis, before any big port area full of yachts and streets full of Ferraris. Call me crazy. That's all for now, I hope that you have enjoyed this post and I will see you for the next one with even more content. Thank you for reading. Best wishes.

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