June 27, 2017

June 27, 2017

The French don't usually eat a big breakfast, so it is not standard at most hotels. We went looking for a coffee shop/bakery with great ambience. I thought the nearby Port d’Aix, the Arc de Triomphe of Marseille was a good choice. Aimee thought it a little seedy so we went back to the train station and got the combo special with chocolate croissant. We are surprised with the tiniest cup of to-go coffee we have ever seen.

After checking out of the hotel, we picked up our rental car. We got an unexpected upgrade. A minivan with automatic transmission and all the modern safety bells. It even came with the normally extra GPS.

Our first tourist stop is nearby Calanque National Park. The coastal terrain is mostly mountainous limestone.  The Mediterranean has eroded this soft mineral into beautiful steep-sided inlets. We park and follow a very popular trail out toward the Sugiton Calanque. The hike is noisy with swarms of cicadas. We make a short detour to an overlook and then head to the seashore where we are joined by dozens of young French sunbathing and cliff-jumping. It is warm, and the humidity is way higher than we are now used to. Plus we each brought only one tiny water bottle. On the steep return hike, we run out of water and barely make it back without passing out. We are feeling like those hiking rookies at the Grand Canyon we often make fun of. Back at the car we turn the AC on high, and buy two Seven-Ups and a half-gallon water bottle. We down it all in short order.

After a seemingly endless drive through the narrow streets of Marseille, we head northwest. Our next stop is the hilltop town of Les Baux des Provence. It is on France's list of Most Beautiful Villages. Les Baux sits atop a promontory of the the little Alps. After finding a pricey parking spot, we head into the cutesy tourist town that sits at its foot. On the far end we buy the audio guide for the tour of the Medieval fortress ruins. The castle was literally carved out of the hilltop. I found it interesting, but Aimee would have rather shopped. For the chemist in me, I was amused that the town gave its name to the aluminum ore (bauxite) first discovered here.

From Les Baux we drove to the nearby town of Arles, that will be our home for the next several days.