The fishing port of Cassis is located 22km east of Marseille
On Sunday, while Claude & Brigitte were visiting, we decided to go and explore the town of Cassis. Cassis is a charming village that was mainly rebuilt in the 18th century over older ruins, however several older buildings survived including a late 14th century Chateau-fort built into the cliff overlooking the port/beach. The Chateaux de la Maison des Baux is privately owned and closed to the public. I took photos of the chateau, however by the time I was in a position to take a good photo, there wasn’t enough light to get that good photo. We walked down to the end of the peninsula and then back around the port.
The left side of the peninsula has a decent size horseshoe shaped sandy beach front. During the height of summer holiday, the beach is typically packed with bodies.
An Excerpt of the History of Cassis: (copied from a french visitor website:)
Name
First record, Carsicis Portus, from the Itinerary of Antonin (Roman); 1323: Castrum Cassitis
Prehistoric: Regional habitation is now known to date back 27,000 years, with recent discovery of the underwater Cosquer caves, in the calanques between Cassis and Marseilles. Paleolithic stamped pottery shards and Paleo-Christian lamps were discovered at the Calanque Port-Miou.
Celto-Ligurian: Cassis was a Gallo-Roman fishing port, and numerous Gallo-Roman artifacts have been discovered.
Medieval: Rule changed several times. In the 14th century it belonged to the Seigneurie de Roquefort. In 1376, Pope Gregory XI of Avignon was on his way to restore the Papacy to Rome when his fleet took refuge from a storm in the calanque Port-Miou.
In 1443, Cassis became a parish independent from Roquefort, and was ruled by the bishops of Marseille during the end of the 15th century. In the middle of the 16th century, Charles-Quinte of Spain, in the Provencal part of his quest to become Universal Monarch, captured the chateau and pillaged Cassis. The population suffered severely from the great plague of 1720.
Except for occasional visits by pirates, which had been happening off and on throughout history, Cassis was relatively calm until 1813 when the English overpowered Napoleon’s defenses and pillaged the port.
Around the port there are several shops, restaurants and cafés. Many of the buildings are finished in colorful pastels that compliment the boats, both large and small lined up in the harbor. Because we arrived later in the day, we decided to do our walking/site seeing first and then went in search of food. Christine had read about a popular restaurant along the western edge of the harbor, so we made our way down the harbor enjoying the sights and smells all the while working up a good appetite.
Once we found the restaurant we all sat down to a wonderful dinner with great food, drink and conversation.
As we emerged from the restaurant, what light we had going in was long gone, so we strolled through the town to walk off our meal and get a sense of the night life. There were a band playing in an open bar along the town sqaure, so we stopped to listen for a while. They were playing a song that Christine recognized, but that despite being told she heard me play the song, I was unable to put my finger on it, and went as far as denying that I had ever heard the tune. Not that the singer wasn’t doing it justice, she was. The lyrics were in english and I was able to understand them, only it didn’t seem to ring any bells. After we got back, I searched the iTunes library with what I thought was the chorus and eventually discovered it was one of Madonna’s songs. Whoops, I apologized, even though I didn’t know the song very well, Christine had indeed recognized so she gets all the credit for that one.
OK, on another note, I’m going to again say sorry for not keeping this blog more up-to-date. I’m not sure how to handle it, just that is need to be handled, so I’m thinking of ways to keep you all in the loop. If anyone has any great ideas. by all means please let me know. I’d love to hear from you people out there, so why not drop me a line. Take care all… -G