Another favorite old fishing village is Sanary-sur-mer just west of Toulon in the Bandol region. Good restaurants and shops line the boat-filled harbor. An outdoor market sets up every morning selling fresh produce.
We had a delicious crepe dinner with Jean-Louis, Sylvie, Raphael, and Marie-Lou. Then walked around the Sanary night market.
We had a fabulous time visiting with our French cousins: family bar-b-ques, seeing the sights, great meals, catching up on family gossip, visiting beautiful beaches and swimming in the azure Mediterranean Sea.
Fabienne and Cloe took us to their favorite beach on Cap Croisette en la Baie des Singes (Monkey Bay). We followed the narrow path along the stark rocky shore and swam in the cool blue water.
On another day, Fabienne drove us to another favorite beach on the Cote d’Azur: Lavandou.
The first time I visited Cassis, almost 40 years ago, it was a small sleepy fishing village just outside Marseille. Today, it’s an upscale tourist destination with gorgeous Mediterranean homes scattered up the surrounding rocky hills.
Cloe joined us and Nicole drove along the back roads of Marseille to take a boat to see the calanques of Marseille and Cassis. These are the narrow steep-walled inlets which are characteristic of this region of the Mediterranean.
After the boat ride, the girls went swimming at the beach and enjoyed gelato in the village. Nicole and I sat and relaxed at the shore. What a wonderful lifestyle!
Friday – August 5, 2016
One of my favorite places in the world is Aix-en-Provence and it’s always great fun to visit! Tony parked the car and we walked toward the historic district of the city. We stopped to see an amazing library that Em found on the internet: the Biblioteque Mejanes. There are three colossal books in front of the entrance to the municipal library.
It must have been very difficult to chose only three volumes from all of French literature. I’m sure there was much discussion and philosophical theories about how and why these were chosen: Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince, Moliere’s Imaginary Invalid, and Camus’ The Stranger.
The building had been an old match-making factory which was repurposed into a library. There were many separate rooms inside which were connected by a central hall:
Nearby was an opera house and a modern shopping mall and several new apartment buildings.
The fountain is in the middle of the traffic circle leading into Aix:
Cours Mirabeau is the main boulevard:
We had fun shopping, walking, and browsing in Aix-en-Provence:
Nicole, Tony, Em and I were joined by our other cousins, Fabienne and Cloe. We had a fabulous outdoor dinner of les savers de la gastronomique marocaine traditionnelle at Le Riad.
Wednesday, August 3rd was a travel day for all of us. Jeff and Han flew home to New York; Em and I continued our summer holiday by flying to Marseille. It was an easy hour-long flight from Paris and our cousins, Nicole and Tony met us at the airport.
Thursday, August 4th: Nicole took us on a tour around Marseille to see the city under an incredibly bright blue sky! We saw: Palais Longchamp, Vieux Port (old harbor), Fort Saint-Jean, Parc Borely, and the St. Charles railroad station. We drove up a steep hill to visit the Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde which towers over Marseille.
Vallon des Auffes is a traditional fishing village in Marseille:
We explored the coast and stopped for a delicious Corsican seafood lunch at a beachside restaurant called Manu Beach New Yorkais Brasserie:
One of many beautiful beaches in Marseille:
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
It was overcast and raining softly in the morning so we took the Metro to the Madeleine station.
We stopped in several shops: Maille for French mustard, Laduree for macarons, and Fauchon just to look, on our way to Galerie Lafayette. We found their fabulous ‘food court’ and spent several hours sampling, looking, and snacking.
We crossed the street to Galerie Lafayette’s main building to see the fabulous atrium and stained glass ceiling. We rode the escalator up to the roof to see the view from the terrace.
For our last celebratory dinner, we walked to Passage Panoramas and ate a delicious supper at Noglu.
