“He who has seen Paris but not Cassis can say I haven’t seen anything.â€Â This was spoken by the Nobel Prize winning writer Federico Mistral. In this episode, we are going to hike, bike, paddle and swim our way around abd tour the charming village of Cassis. We will bike through vineyards and have cocktails overlooking a medieval castle. We will hike through some glorious cliffs and kayak our way around the stunning calanques in this amazing town that captured my heart and restored my soul. Tune in to hear why you definitely want to get your butt to this charming little town.

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Cassis, France stole my heart!

Beautiful waterfront?  Check!

Vineyards?  Check!

Unpretentious with real people?   Check!

Medieval Castle?  Check!

Great food? Check!

History and culture? Check!

Great hiking, cycling and paddling?  Check, check and check!!!

Qu’a vist Paris, se noun a vist Cassis, pou dire: n’ai rèn vist” (He who has seen Paris but not Cassis can say, I haven’t seen anything.”

Nobel prize winning writerm Federique Mistral, mirrors my sentiment.  I was smitten when I laid eyes on Cassis, and by the end of my first day, I told my host that I would be staying until further notice.  To all that speak French, I apologize for butchering your language in today’s podcast, as I attempt to recite this quote.  Hopefully, you’ll at least get a good laugh at my efforts:)

This is the rock scramble to a delightful cove with a beautiful private beach (where I saw the rock climbers).  It looks harder than it was.

GETTING TO CASSIS:
The Apps I mentioned that I used to travel are GoEuro and Rome2Rio.  Both are FREE and a super big help!  You simply input your start and end point and the app will tell you your options to get there, with prices!  Another App I forgot to mention was the bus company, Flixbus, which also offers an App and you can buy your tickets on the app.  For trains, you use SNCF, and I would usually just buy my ticket at the kiosk in the station rather than book ahead.  ALWAYS remember to validate your tickets… just watch the locals.  Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of local travel quickly enough.  People are friendly and helpful everywhere and you can usually find someone who speaks English.  If not, a smile, shrugged shoulders plus pantomime work well:)

Castle of Cassis : Chateau de Cassis

If you can afford it, splurge on staying in the castle.  I certainly plan to on my next visit.  I stayed in a charming hostel in Cassis.  If you’re interested, send me an email and I’ll get you the info.  The Visitor’s Center can help with accommodations, as can the regular booking channels.

OK, so I need to work on figuring out how to use the video feature of my camera! Just turn your head – the view from Cap Canaille is AMAZING! Please know that I’m technically challenged. This was my first attempt at using the video feature on my iPhone (and might very well be my first selfie!). I was trying to capture Cap Canaille in Cassis, France. Utterly breathtaking view – even with the morning haze!

I’m embarrased to even show this, but I promised to do so on today’s episode:)

Qu’a vist Paris, se noun a vist Cassis, pou dire: n’ai rèn vist” (He who has seen Paris but not Cassis can say, I haven’t seen anything.” These words, spoken by Nobel-prize winning writer Federique Mistral, reflect the great attraction that Cassis exerts on all those who go there.

Hike, Bike, Paddle Provence France In Cassis

Getting There

“Qu’a vist Paris, se noun a vist Cassis, pou dire n’ai rèn vist.†Here’s what it means: “He who has seen Paris but not Cassis can say, ‘I haven’t seen anything.’†This was spoken by the Nobel Prize-winning writer, Frederic Mistral. Our last adventure, the Tour du Mont Blanc, was super gorgeous but tough so I thought we’d soften things up a bit and do a lighter adventure in a different part of France. I’m going to take you to a little village I hesitate to even cover as I’d like to keep it a secret. The whole time I was there, I didn’t meet or hear a single American. I think it might be a stealth playground of the French. We’re going to hike, bike, paddle and swim our way around the charming village of Cassis. We’ll bike through vineyards, have cocktails overlooking a medieval castle, hike through some glorious cliffs and kayak our way around the stunning Calanques, this amazing town that captured my heart and restored my soul. I’m delighted to share with you this incredible find that the little charming town of Cassis so totally captured my heart. By the time you finish exploring Cassis, you’ll have no choice but to agree with Frederic Mistral that unless you’ve seen Cassis, you’ve seen nothing at all.

Before we get to Cassis, I want to tell you a backstory about how I got there. My beloved husband, Bill, died of cancer in 2014. The next couple of years are pretty much of a blur to me, and close to the two-year anniversary of his death, I realized I had to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life. He and I had built a small business that had lost its luster for me. After his death, I was just going through the motions. I’d always dreamed of traveling more, but our business always seemed to anchor us. I even had a dream of chucking it all and traveling long-term. Since I turned 50, I also discovered hiking and it has become a real passion for me. I love getting out in nature and listening to the birds, the rustling of the trees, breathe the clean air and have time to think. I love climbing mountains to catch the view that truly, when you think about it, even knowing the most popular parks and places in the world, still only a small percentage of the people get to see.

Why I Chose France And Cassis

In February of 2016, even though I had no idea how I was going to be able to pull it off, I bought a round-trip ticket to Paris, departing in late August and returning in the middle of October. I figured that would be long enough for me to figure out if I like doing long-term travel, which turns out I’m happy to say that I do. I chose France because I don’t speak French and I’d only spent an afternoon and an evening there, so everything was going to be foreign to me. Much like adventure travel, I want to challenge and test myself. Outside of meeting and spending some time with a British friend I had met in Iceland that year and also an American couple who were also going to be in France around the same time, the trip was going to be unscripted after the first three days. I wanted to go where I felt like going, do what I felt like doing and move on when I felt like it. This was both terrifying and exciting all at the same time. I did eventually make up some rules, such as I had to know exactly where I was going to sleep by 2:00 that afternoon and I had to get there before dark.

For the most part, I just lived moment by moment. It’s an extraordinary way to travel, but you do sacrifice efficiency because you’d spend a lot of time trying to figure out logistics and planning out how you’re going to get where and where you’re going to go. You wouldn’t have that issue if you planned ahead of time. To figure out the travel, I used two free apps: Rome2rio and GoEuro. With both of these, you plug in your starting point and your destination and then they give you your option and your prices. This town so captured my heart. I took so many photos and I had a difficult time trying to narrow it down, so I’ve got an abundance of photos. If you never go to my website, this is the episode you want to go to my website to see. I’ve got videos. This was the first time I learned how to use the video app on the camera and you’ll see that when I go do it sideways. Nonetheless, great photos, and it will give you a real taste of what this region is like.

Going on an unscripted trip can be terrifying and exciting at the same time. Share on X

I chose Cassis because I saw on a map that the Calanques National Park is adjacent and was on the water, so that sounded pretty good to me. I did know what a calanque was, but I know that countries always highlight their greatest landscapes by designating them as a national park. Off the Cassis I went in search of a good hike. I went by bus, trains. The public transport in France is excellent so it’s very easy to get around. I’m going to try to describe a calanque to you. Put your hand out in front of you and then spread your fingers. Now imagine that each of your fingers are very tall isolated cliff. Now imagine the gaps between your fingers as the Mediterranean Sea. You are in Provence in the south of France. The water is turquoise, the light is amazing and it’s in Cassis that I finally found some peace after all the turmoil the last few years.

 

Why Cassis Is My Favorite Place In France

Calanques are found on the Mediterranean coast and they’re made of these steep rock inlets and valleys in the water. They are caused by glacial erosion or from the top of a large cave that collapsed down and then became partially submerged by a rise in the sea level. The calanques are stunning. When I arrived in Cassis, I was immediately smitten and it quickly became and remains my favorite place in all of France. It has it all. Beautiful waterfront, check. Vineyards, check. Quaint fishing village with real people and not at all stuffy or pretentious, check. A castle on the cliff, check. Great restaurants, check. Vibrant market, check. Culture, check. Friendly locals, check. Great food, check. Great hiking, paddling and cycling, check.

If you’re a little nervous about trying Adventure Travel in a foreign country, I could not more highly recommend getting your butt over to Cassis and using it as a base for day trips. The Calanques National Park was only established a few years ago and has over 200 square miles which is about 500 square kilometers. There are multiple hiking trails in the area, none of which I found to be overly difficult. Although to get to this one quiet beach between the cliffs, you did have to mantle to a rock scramble but nothing was too hard or dangerous. Be sure to wear your bathing suit if you’re hiking in the park because you can enjoy a lovely refreshing swim in the private cove that few make the effort to get to. I’m not sure if I was lucky or not because it made me nervous, but it was cool to watch these two guys free climbing one of the cliffs in the calanque at one of these coves. They were up several hundred feet in the air. They had no rope support and they appeared to know what they were doing, but one mistake and they were doomed because that limestone cliff is a straight shot down to the shore. Watching them made me nervous for them, but they also entertained the small gathering at the beach. Happily, I saw no mishaps before I headed back.

 

Getting Around The Park

To find your way around the park, you can pick up a map at the well-run Tourist Information Office located right in the downtown harbor front. The staff speaks English and I imagine other common languages in addition to their native French. They were very helpful and justifiably proud of their amazing home. If you’re in Cassis during the summer wildfire season, the calanques may only be accessible by boat or kayak. It’s a good idea to check with the Visitors Center before you head out to find out what the conditions are that day. There are a few roads in the park and most of the roads are often poor, jammed and parking is always nonexistent unless you have a reservation at one of the restaurants. Personally, I would recommend either hiking or kayaking to avoid all the hassle. The park is literally just outside of the town of Cassis so it’s an easy walk.

 

One evening, I was sitting at a restaurant overlooking the harbor and on the other side of the national park is a massive cliff called Cap Canaille. This is the tallest coastal cliff in all of Europe. Watching the sunset turn the cliff red, I told the waiter I’m going to climb that in the morning. He laughed at me as if I couldn’t do it. I know I don’t look the part, but I was determined. The reason he laughed is because the grade is super steep. It’s not that far of a hike to get up to the top, but you sure need good lungs. If you hike a little later in the day, you pass a vineyard that’s open for wine tastings, which would make a nice reward on the way back down. When I reached the top, the view was magnificent, although a little hazy the day I was there. You can see for miles and miles and I felt like a speck on this incredible landscape. I decided to try to use the video feature of my iPhone for the first time. Apparently, you have to hold it in a certain direction. If you turn your head, you’ll get a taste of the view along with some, that I finally figured out how to use it.

 

There are lots of trails up there and while I didn’t see anybody at that time of day I was there, I did, unfortunately, see signs that people had been there before. Please bring a baggie with you when you hike and put your toilet paper in it if nature calls. It must not rain up there very much, so I saw some littered toilet paper along the trail, which is disgusting. How disrespectful of the beauty that these folks came up to witness. Litter aside, it was one of my more worthwhile climbs. The view was absolutely amazing. I should note that you’re also able to drive up there and much of the hike is on the road. There’re also tons of other trails up in the area. There are three and four-hour hikes that are available. It’s such a great base town for you to do all sorts of outdoor adventures. If you need a break from hiking, you can always rent a kayak or a boat and explore the calanques that way. This and all the activities can be arranged at the Visitors Center, either before your trip or I found it just as convenient to do it that morning once I saw the weather.

 

Whether you rent a kayak or not, take the time out to take one of the guided boat tours of the calanques, so you can get that perspective from the water. They offer several tours depending on how many of the calanques that you want to visit. They each had their own personalities. Each cove and cliff look completely different and just when you think one can’t get any prettier, the next one surprises you. In addition to kayaking, you can snorkel, scuba dive, wind surf or rent a boat. Imagine rolling vineyards in France and that’s what the Cassis’ surroundings look like. Picturesque, quaint and inviting. My tour had two guides and I was the only non-French speaking guest. I was a little annoyed that while both guides spoke English, they hardly translated anything for me. Fortunately, a kind Swiss woman took over that job and explained what the guides were telling us whenever we would stop at some historic or otherwise notable place. One interesting story is that a long time ago, at one of the coves we stopped, pirates would use lanterns to trick passing ships into thinking the cove was safe and when the ships crashed against the rocks, out of plundering they would go.

 

Tasty Food In Cassis

You can get in a good hike just wandering around the charming streets of Cassis. Artifacts indicate that the harbor area was settled in the beginning of the fifth or sixth centuries. You can get a taste of the history by visiting the free Communal Oven called the Le Four Banal, which was built in the seventeenth century and just excavated this century. There’s also a nice Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions that’s worth checking out. When I get to a new town, I mostly wander around and get lost. The curved streets can be a bit of a maze, but if you get really lost in Cassis, just head downhill and you will eventually reach the harbor, so no worries. You can pick up a map at the Visitors Center. I also ate well in Cassis. My favorite meal was a shrimp pasta with an exquisite sauce I would marry if that were possible. The portion was overly generous and, as I had a refrigerator back at the room, I asked for a to-go box. To-go boxes aren’t common in Europe and they didn’t have anything. They were also somewhat amused that I would eat leftovers. Using my butchered French combined with my pantomime, I explained that it was my favorite dish so far in France so there was absolutely no way I would allow such a dish to go into the trashcan. They finally relented and cleaned out an ice cream container to put my dinner remains in, and we all laughed.

The harbor in Cassis will capture your heart with its colorful fishing boat like in the shore that matches the charm of the shops. Share on X

That reminds me of a night I took my Scottish friend, Jamie, out to dinner for his birthday in Glasgow. We went to a tapas restaurant and way over ordered. Easily more than half of our delicious dishes remained. Jamie is a single guy and I told him he should take it home so he wouldn’t have to cook the next day. He explained that they don’t do that there. I insisted and the restaurant wrapped the dishes up for us. About ten days later at the end of my trip after my long-distance hike, I went out for my final dinner with Jamie and his mom. At the end of the meal, they asked for a to-go box for the leftovers. I laughed thinking that perhaps I started a trend in Europe. I have this cute picture of Jamie holding his very first to-go box in front of one of those cute little red phone booths they use in Scotland.

 

I fell in love with Cassis the moment I saw the harbor. The colorful fishing boats line the shore and they match the charm of the harbor front shops with all their gaiety. What I really liked is that these are real people, doing real work and going about the business of life. I had arrived in Cassis from Antibe, a very upscale town where the uber-wealthy park their massive yachts when playing in Monte Carlo. It’s a lovely town and certainly worth a visit, but Antibe to me is comprised of the rich, the workers or the tourists. Whereas in Cassis, I got the feeling that Cassis would continue to go about its business whether or not any tourists showed up. In fact, most of the tourists seem to be day trippers taking the 25-minute ride in from Marseille. Most were French, and I never met an American my entire visit. Cassis is a place that I could call home. I even put the Cassis weather on my phone so I can check it out during the year. It can get cold in the winter and they even create a public ice-skating rink for everyone to use from the end of December through January. I’m determined to live there for at least a month or two one day. My Swiss translator friend from the bike ride offered to let me light her apartment as her family only uses it a few times a year.

 

Stay At Chateau de Cassis And Other Charming Accommodations

If I was smitten when I arrived, watching the sun go down and light up the massive cliff Cap Canaille got me serious about the town, then I fully fell in love once I saw Cassis at night. While you can’t miss seeing the castle on the cliff during the day, Cassis comes into its own at night. The owners of this now-privately held castle light it up after dark, and it’s so breathtaking. I was there during a full moon as well, and the water was rough, so the moonlight was highlighting the crashing waves along the beach. The harbor front shop lights combined with moonlight to bounce light upon the ripples of the cove alongside the fishing boats and the castle was absolutely dazzling. When I returned to the hostel that night, I told my host I would be extending my stay until further notice. Let me tell you about the castle. It’s called the Chateau de Cassis. It began as a watch tower in the fifth century. Eventually, the castle and the walls were built and that started somewhere around the eighth century. In the seventeenth century, the castle was all but abandoned when most of the remaining residents moved down to the village of Cassis.

 

The castle became private property in the 1800’s and remains so today. It has been lovingly renovated and now you can rent a suite and stay there if you want. Staying at the castle is justifiably more expensive than a typical hotel, but I didn’t find the price unreasonable. I plan to stay there myself for a night or two on my next visit. On this trip, I stayed in my inexpensive hostel where I met this cool Moroccan woman named Malek, who I still keep up with on Facebook and a Parisian named Solveig with whom I reconnected and met for drinks with in Paris several weeks later on my trip. Solveig is a castle lover and I have invited her to come visit me in North Carolina so she can see the Biltmore Castle in Asheville. As an aside, you can rent this castle for an event. If you know someone looking for a super-cool venue for a destination wedding, you ought to forward this show to them so they can check it out. I’m sure it’s going to be expensive, but what a venue.

 

I’m very grateful to Cassis. It was here that I finally started feeling like my old self again after Bill’s passing. It was in Cassis that I began to believe that my life could be wonderful again, even though it was going to look so different without Bill. I believe that somewhere, Bill is smiling, watching me stretch my wings and tackle ever more interesting trips outside of my comfort zone. While he personally wouldn’t want to go on the types of adventures that I’ve been taking, he would’ve been the first to encourage me to go. It’s obvious I’ve fallen in love with Cassis and I almost hate sharing it because I’d hate to see it get too touristy and spoiled. When I looked back over my trips and I wanted to try to figure out which trip would I recommend if you wanted to get your feet wet in foreign adventure travel, I couldn’t think of any better place than Cassis. It truly has it all and it could be tailored as inexpensively or as luxurious as you want, plus you have that ever-helpful Visitors Center there to guide you as you need.

 

Using the village as a base camp, you can decide each day what you feel like doing, depending on how your muscles feel and what the weather is like. The Visitors Center can make any arrangements that you need and if you like to plan in advance, their website can help you do that as well. There’s an abundance of outdoor adventure activities all set in one of the most charming places that has ever touched my heart. There are many places that I have loved, but as the saying goes, I wouldn’t want to live there. I can’t say that about Cassis. I would definitely want to live there, certainly for the short-term and quite possibly longer.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of Cassis. I’d give this a difficulty rating of two to three depending on the difficulty of the hikes that you do. The best time to go is in the late spring and early fall to get the best weather and to avoid the crowds. Like always, I’ve put together a free travel planner that you can automatically get when you join our monthly newsletter and community or you can download it off the website if you should need it sooner. I want to thank all of you for supporting me and encouraging me. Your emails have been so encouraging. I want to give a shout out to a fellow North Carolinian named Dennis. I’ve got an upcoming episode about biking and cruising the Danube, so hopefully, I can get a hold of him and he can give us some insights as well. I also see that the episode on Nicaragua seems to have sparked some interest in that lovely and often overlooked country. Laurie from Colorado is adding it to her bucket list, as is Kai from Washington who is adding both Nicaragua and Sweden to her list.

I want to ask you something too. Nobody has listened to the episode on Australia, which is odd. You’ve got the Great Barrier Reef and Whitewater Rafting in Tully. It seems odd to me, so I don’t know if I’ve done something technically wrong or nobody is interested in it. If anybody has any clue, please pop me an email and give me some suggestions on that. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong there. Please keep the emails coming. You can always reach me at Kit@ActiveTravelAdventures.com or click on the connect buttons on the website. Did you know that I’ve made it really easy for you to find a cool trip? You can use the search features on the website to check out all the adventures we’ve covered to date. I categorized each trip by the difficulty rating, the location, the activity, the accommodations, who it’s good for like solo, couple, family, friends or custom. Whether you should use a guide or not and what kind of budget you can expect plus much more.

If you’ve just found the Active Travel Adventures podcast, you can go to ActiveTravelAdventures.com and click on the podcast directory to see a list of all the previous episodes. At the top of each episode page is a podcast player. This is also great if you know somebody who would be interested in ATA, but they don’t yet know how to listen to a podcast. You can also share any episode by clicking the box with the arrow on whatever device you’re listening on and then email or share it on social media. If you do share it on Facebook or Twitter, be sure to tag me, Kit Parks, so hopefully I’ll get to see it to thank you. If you’re enjoying this episode, please share it one person. Word of mouth is the best way for people to find ATA among a sea of hundreds of thousands of podcasts. Thanks, in advance. I’ll be back and we’ll be rafting the Colorado River to the Grand Canyon and you won’t want to miss it. Until then, adventure on.

Important Links:

• Tour du Mont Blanc – previous episode
• Rome2rio
• GoEuro
• Chateau de Cassis
• Visitors Center
• ActiveTravelAdventures.com
• Nicaragua – previous episode
• Australia – previous episode
• Kit@ActiveTravelAdventures.com

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• activetraveladventures.com
• Active Travel Adventures Facebook Page
• Active Travel Adventures Facebook Group
• Active Travel Adventures Twitter
• Active Travel Adventures Instagram
• Active Travel Adventures YouTube
• Kit Parks LinkedIn