After a few days in Aix-en-Provence we transferred to Cassis – a small fishing village in The Calanques to the east of Marseille.

We have been in this area before two years ago and wanted to return to explore some more. The Calanques are giant limestone fingers. Huge cliffs that jut out into the sea with small villages at the end. The whole area is a national park and there are plenty of walks, cliff climbs or swims to be had. Whilst Cassis is small it packs a lot in. May was the perfect time to visit. Not too hot and not too many tourists. Quite a few day-trippers but the evenings were very peaceful. Our hotel was right on the waterfront and it was possible to have Francesca asleep upstairs and for us to be down on the quay for dinner or drinks. Now it is time for the beach and walks and swims and not much else but just to enjoy being here.

Our family time is done and Rog and I are heading back to Marley in Cavalaire-Sur-Mer. All the bad weather seems to have passed and we are going to head east again and visit Canne, Antibe and a couple of small islands ( Iles de Lerin) very close to the coast of Cannes – Ile Sant-Marguerite and Ile Sant-Honorat. From Antibe we can make a quick crossing to Calvi on Corsica.

Time to leave the French coast – we have had a lot of fun here. The Picasso Museum in Antibe was great. Originally Chateau Grimaldi – Picasso had his workshop/studio here on the top floor and lived in the hills behind Antibe. Now the Grimaldi family have gifted the Chateau to the commune of Antibe and it is a wonderful gallery plus museum. And with a great view. A Classic Yacht Regatta was happening in front of the museum and this yacht was a standout. So many sails! But 20 crew at least onboard.

Corsica is 80 nm away – so we have a 10 hour sail in front of us. Beautiful weather just right for sailing – it’s nice quiet time and it’s an internet free time too. Usually about 10nm off the coast we lose phone reception so no opportunity to catch up on Duolingo or blogging!

But great excitement because not far from our stern we can see whale spume and before we know it a huge Fin whale has breached – extraordinary – it made me look for more – we would not want to hit one of these. They are the second largest whale in the world and they love to cruise the Corsican coast.

We arrived in Calvi around 7pm. It’s nice to be here again.

We will be here for 3 days. The wind is going to come up very strong and we will get into the Marina and sit tight until it passes. While we wait for that we hire a car and head into the interior for some stream bathing. It really is untenable being on a beach today but up here in the mountains there are streams flowing – snowmelt mostly – and a few are quite accessible. We weren’t the only ones looking for a cool dip. It was very beautiful and very refreshing. These mountains are seriously big and there is still snow on the northern faces. Corsica is a beautiful wild place and you will never dir of hunger here. The most delicious food everywhere and the Corsicans take great pride if their produce. It is justified.

12 Jun This entry was published on June 12, 2025 at 4:44 am. It’s filed under Uncategorized and tagged calvi, cassis, corsica, france, french-riviera, nice, travel. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.