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Today was our lucky day--we woke up to beautiful, warm sun, and after driving from Nice in a downpour and not being able to find a hotel until we drove around for 2 hours in the rain, we were more than thrilled to see it. So, we jumped up and out the door early to see the town of Cassis, just east of Marsailles. What a gorgeous little town! Actually, of all the Mediterranean towns we went through yesterday (Antibes, St. Tropez, Cannes--all terrific) we liked Cassis the best. And we wouldn't have even thought about going there if it hadn't been for Heather and Keith who told us about it. They were there a few years ago and liked it; they thought we'd like it, too, and we did.
We got there in time to just sit at a little outdoor cafe right at the harbor and have a cappuccino.
The sun warmed our bones still limp from all the rain, and we basked in it. There were boats for hire to take sightseers around the calenques, so we made arrangements to go on one. A calenque, we found out, is a finger of water that pokes into a very high and formidable rocky cliff. So, instead of a bay that has sand or even rocks around it, this is a narrow bay, maybe only 300 yards wide and a mile long in some cases, with very tall cliffs of 200 feet. Spectacular!! And when you throw in the colors of the water (this is still the amazingly many-hued Mediterranean) and it laps against the white of the cliffs, it's an amazing sight.
The Cafe Bonaparte was our next stop for a leisurely lunch (it is leisurely whether you want it to be or not), and we sat for a couple of hours enjoying our salad Nicoise, chicken a la Provence and sea bass in a sauce with potatoes, and creme brulee and what we call a Napoleon (in French it is Mille Feur; or it sounds kind of like that and it means a thousand layers ). Then we thought we'd look again at the beautiful show cases of pastry (did I neglect to mention that we already had had two really delicious pastries with cream and fresh raspberries and strawberries?) The memory of those luscious delights was long gone and needed refreshing.
So we set out for the bakery noticing in the sky a very dark cloud approaching. It started raining and did not let up filling first the streets with cascades of water, then onto the sidewalks, and as we backed up into a stairwell, it followed us into the hall. After about an hour, just as I thought we might have to retreat upstairs, it stopped and began to recede and within a few minutes was gone all except a small rivulet down the middle of the street.
At that, we visited the pastry shop, grabbed bread and quiche to have with our leftover olives from yesterday, lemon and apricot tarts, and headed for Arles. The maze Terry had to drive through to get to our hotel is a story, and my imagination has been set on edge by the dark, narrow streets that our hotel is located in. I have obviously seen too many movies or have read too much Charles Dickens. But more about that tomorrow.
We got there in time to just sit at a little outdoor cafe right at the harbor and have a cappuccino.
The sun warmed our bones still limp from all the rain, and we basked in it. There were boats for hire to take sightseers around the calenques, so we made arrangements to go on one. A calenque, we found out, is a finger of water that pokes into a very high and formidable rocky cliff. So, instead of a bay that has sand or even rocks around it, this is a narrow bay, maybe only 300 yards wide and a mile long in some cases, with very tall cliffs of 200 feet. Spectacular!! And when you throw in the colors of the water (this is still the amazingly many-hued Mediterranean) and it laps against the white of the cliffs, it's an amazing sight.
The Cafe Bonaparte was our next stop for a leisurely lunch (it is leisurely whether you want it to be or not), and we sat for a couple of hours enjoying our salad Nicoise, chicken a la Provence and sea bass in a sauce with potatoes, and creme brulee and what we call a Napoleon (in French it is Mille Feur; or it sounds kind of like that and it means a thousand layers ). Then we thought we'd look again at the beautiful show cases of pastry (did I neglect to mention that we already had had two really delicious pastries with cream and fresh raspberries and strawberries?) The memory of those luscious delights was long gone and needed refreshing.
So we set out for the bakery noticing in the sky a very dark cloud approaching. It started raining and did not let up filling first the streets with cascades of water, then onto the sidewalks, and as we backed up into a stairwell, it followed us into the hall. After about an hour, just as I thought we might have to retreat upstairs, it stopped and began to recede and within a few minutes was gone all except a small rivulet down the middle of the street.
At that, we visited the pastry shop, grabbed bread and quiche to have with our leftover olives from yesterday, lemon and apricot tarts, and headed for Arles. The maze Terry had to drive through to get to our hotel is a story, and my imagination has been set on edge by the dark, narrow streets that our hotel is located in. I have obviously seen too many movies or have read too much Charles Dickens. But more about that tomorrow.
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