daydream destinations

Daydream Destination: Cassis

Last week we went to Portofino which is known, in part, for being a favorite spot of the rich and famous. So today I thought I'd take you to Cassis (pronounced Kah-see, but I've also heard people pronounce the final "s"), a small town on the French Riviera. It's still sun-soaked and Mediterranean but is completely different from Portofino. Someone whose name rhymes with Schmick Schmeeves and who writes those ubiquitous blue guide books to Europe calls it "The Poor Man's St. Tropez."  Hmm, ok. Maybe. I haven't been to St. Tropez (yet!) so I guess I'm not really qualified to weigh in on that too much. But I think that Cassis doesn't necessarily need to be compared to St. Tropez. It has breathtaking natural sites and a soul of its own.

When I went to Cassis in 2009, we were staying in a small town in Provence called Lourmarin for ten days. It was an easy drive from Lourmarin to Cassis, just over an hour or so when we went. So if you're ever staying in Provence or elsewhere on the Riviera/Côte d'Azur, here's a unique town you can do in a day.

The main part of Cassis is centered around the harbor. Most of the restaurants and cafés surround it and offer great views of the people, the boats, and the sea. We had lunch/ice cream at one café and the people-watching was fantastic because it was August, which is high season. It seems like almost everyone in France gets shaken down to the south in August, so Cassis was alive with a bustling mix of tanned, relaxed vacationers and tanned townspeople.

It is easy to meander through the town and along the harbor. There's a casino within walking distance if you like gambling.

There are also some shops along the streets, but don't expect to see big name designers. It's not really that kind of town, and that's part of what I like about it.

This place isn't made for buying, it's made for being. There's a great, free public beach directly ahead of the main street and next to the harbor (this is also where the washrooms are, for those of you like me who wish there were maps pointing out good public WCs) Most European beaches I've been to have fees, so having a nice, free, easy to access beach in a great little town is special.

What makes Cassis unique, however, are its calanques. Calanques are valleys made by tall, steep cliffs plunging into water, like fjords. Limestone forms the ones here.

The best way to see them is by boat. You can choose to see 3, 5, or 8 calanques on a group tour based on how much time you have and how much you want to pay. The 5 calanque tour we went on was about an hour long and was perfect for us.

Tickets are reasonably priced and easy to get at one of the little huts in front of the tour boats on the harbor. You can't buy them too far in advance, so make sure to check out the tour times and then ask someone in the huts when your time will go on sale.

So what is the tour like? Well, first you hop on one of these boats.

Now, if you're wearing a white camisole and a khaki skirt, I recommend not sitting at the bow if you can help it. If you want to get wet and have a great ride, sit at the bow. If you don't have a choice, like us, just be ready to get wet and cover anything that doesn't like water.

Our captain seemed to think that accelerating into the middle of the waves was great fun. It was. I think he must have had some sort of game to see if he could beat his best time from calanque to calanque. Almost everyone at the bow was screaming with glee as the Mediterranean surged over the edges of the boat and onto us. My dad was mostly cursing and trying to save the camera. I was loving every second but wondering who and what I was flashing.

Here is a bit of what the beautiful and imposing calanques look like.

What I love is that the tour takes you into the calanques, which kind of slice through the topography and make little cove areas. In each calanque there were always sunbathers tucked away on slabs of limestone, little beaches, or diving from their boats. It felt like you were stumbling upon a wonderful secret spot despite being on a tour that runs constantly.

Our guide explained what we were seeing, but my French was too rusty to understand much of it. There's something called God's Finger along the way, but I couldn't catch the rest. I do wish I had been able to follow it better. Being able to understand some parts led me to make up reasonable sounding stories in my head. For example, this looks like a troglodyte cave to me:

As you come back into town you get a lovely view of the beach and the cliffs behind it.

So there you have it. A different taste of what a visit to the French and Italian Rivieras have to offer you. On one hand, you have the quiet wealth of Portofino. On the other hand, you have lively, relaxed Cassis, which is less of a fantasy-land but no less fun.

I will never forget standing in the warm sun, trying to dry my clothes, and feeling the salt crystals that formed on my skin as the water evaporated. Teenagers were huddled in groups watching each other and listening to music. Families played on the beach. Couples walked hand in hand. Cassis was wonderfully alive.

Daydream Destination: Versailles

One of the main reasons I wanted to do this blog was to talk about travel in a way that went beyond what you might normally find in most travel books. Don't get me wrong, I think travel books are an indispensable tool for research, planning, and building excitement about your destination. They're just one tool, however, and sometimes it's more fun to explore what you would like to see beyond the "greatest hits" usually offered in them. Since planning is half the fun of travel for me, I'm going to attempt to relieve my wanderlust by posting about destinations I love. Sometimes they will be places I've been, sometimes they will be places I want to go, and sometimes I might plan out a little trip. Who knows? Maybe someone out there will get something out of it.

I thought a perfect first post would be on Versailles. Most of the books I read and the people I asked said to skip Versailles because there's so much more to see in Paris. True. There is so much more to see in Paris, but I really, really, really, really wanted to see Versailles. So there. Neener neener. I had a historical itch to scratch, okay? My parents humored me and off we went.

After two full day visits, here's my take on Versailles. The big palace bits? Not the best part. Yes, it is stunningly beautiful and full of history, but it is often crowded and not very well presented, in my opinion. The first day we went, it was hot and everyone was crammed into rooms like sardines and tour guides were causing major pile ups with their ugly flags sticking up into the air. The audio guide was also a bit underwhelming--it mentioned nothing of people peeing in the corners and stairwells during the palace's heyday or the direct passageway between the king and queen's rooms that allowed for discreet late night visits. There are so many interesting tidbits of information that could go with the drier facts and help bring the place alive.

So here's what I recommend: If you're interested, absolutely go to Versailles. Get a Paris Museum Pass! This helps you skip the insane ticket line and gets you into the palace, the grounds, the Petit Trianon and Grand Trianon. You can also use it for most of the major museums in Paris. It is usually worth the price, depending on how many museums you want to see and ticket costs at each place.

Plan on making it a full day. Get on the train early so you have lots of time. You will need it. It's quite easy. There are great in-depth directions here.

Once there, it's easy to find the palace, there is usually a nice sized crowd to follow. Be on the lookout for the brown signs pointing to the palace. It is about a 5 to 10 minute walk. Then you'll stumble upon this:

Gleefully skip the long ticket line and pat yourself on the back for your amazing foresight. Once inside the palace, as you walk through, if you're liking what you're seeing, slow down, linger, and enjoy. If not, then you can move a little quicker because, for me at least, the real treasure of Versailles is outside at the Petit Trianon and the Hameau.

I can, without a doubt, say the Petite Trianon/Hameau estate is one of my favorite places I've ever been. This estate was basically created to allow Marie-Antoinette to leave behind the formality of the main palace and relax in a Rousseauian pastoral playground. It still feels that way today since it seems like fewer people make their way over.

After taking a wander through the Petit Trianon head out toward the Hameau. Take your time and explore. There are paths that meander all over, slowly revealing the wonders of this place: a Temple of Love, a grotto, fragrant pink roses. . .I won't give everything away. Eventually you will get to the Hameau.

The Hameau is an English-style hamlet and working farm. Marie-Antoinette would dress down and play pastoral shepherdess. It probably wasn't the best idea for an already controversial queen in a tumultuous time to be playing peasant in what is essentially an 18th-century theme park, but that's part of what makes it a such an interesting place. Besides, even if you could not care less about history, it is beautiful.

The Hameau also still grows cool fruits, vegetables, plants and has animals. When I was there last I watched donkeys having an argument, a bossy goose, sleeping rabbits, baby chicks, and the funniest, hungriest, noisiest pig (or was that just me after not eating soon enough?).

So there you have it. My daydream destination at Versailles. There are a bunch of other things to see and do on the grounds that you could also explore, like paddling the Grand Canal, riding bikes, and visiting the Grand Trianon that Napoleon renovated. But for me, the Petit Trianon and the Hameau are a little bit of paradise outside of the city.