Thursday, November 11, 2010

Cassis

A few weekends ago, before it turned cold, we took a friend visiting from Australia down to Cassis.

Cassis1

Cassis is a seaside town near Marseille and a truly gorgeous place, as I hope my photos manage to convey.

Cassis2

Parking is never easy in these small towns that have become big tourist draws, but I don't really mind (unless it's raining) as it gives me the chance to wander through the streets and get a better feel for the place.

Cassis

I loved the wall textures out the front of this house.

Cassis3

Getting closer to the water now.

Cassis4

Cassis harbour. What it's all about.

Cassis5

Cassis6

I thought these flower balls on the lampposts were so pretty I had to take two photos. At least I changed the perspective!

Cassis8

Cassis7

After we had a little look around, we settled down here for lunch. I had a fabulous smoked salmon and cream sauce pasta, washed down with plenty of rosé. Thankfully the kids couldn't finish their pizzas (although I had to arm wrestle the mister to get a piece).

Cassis10

After lunch we all had an ice cream/gelato. My gelato was lavender flavoured - delicate, sweet, aromatic, yum.

Cassis11

Cones in hand (dripping on wrists, smeared on faces) we wandered past more boats to the beach.

Cassis12

Not bad, huh?

Cassis13

Too cold for white pointers though.

The sand still wasn't Australia-worthy, but was much less gravelly than La Ciotat.

Cassis14

The kids had a ball burning off all the sugar in their ice creams.

Cassis15
Cassis16

Once energy stores were depleted the men folk took the kids back up the hill to the car while I detoured by the local church. St Michel's Church was built in the 1800s.

Cassis17

The walls behind the altar were painted with soothing-coloured murals.

Cassis18

Not so soothing for poor Joanie (St Joan of Arc).

Cassis19

And here's St Michel (the Archangel Michael) kicking butt and taking names. The dragon is Satan and he is undergoing some extreme root canal therapy at the hands of God's top general.

Cassis20

A close up of St Michael. On his chest he wears the latin words Quis ut Deus which translates to Who is like God? Hint: don't say 'me' unless you want a new throat entrance, as St Michael symbolises humility before God.

Cassis21

This was the view towards the back of the church.

Cassis22

How about that organ! The most beautiful blue.

Cassis23

As I left I noticed these flower boxes in the church square.

Cassis24

Well fed and tired, we drove back home, only stopping once to take some final pics of this fabulous view on the outskirts of the town.

Cassis26
Cassis25

À bientôt, Cassis!

12 comments:

Christine said...

beautiful.

nato said...

Bonjour, with these pictures, i have an extra place to visit when i go to france.Lovely.

Kelly said...

So beautiful. The itch to travel to Europe is getting stronger with each of your posts. Thank you so much for sharing these lovely places :-)

Bloom said...

Fantastic photos Kirsty! Thanks for sharing your trip with us. It is totally fascinating to see French towns & countryside. SO different to Australia! Still drooling over your lavender gelato & 'made on the day' chevre from your last post. In fact, your 'whimpering' description is perfect!

Lauren said...

Glorious photos. I'm with Nato - I'll be using your blog as a travel guide for my trip to France in a couple of years.

Veronica said...

Your pictures had me speechless. The front wall of the house looks cool. As does everything else. I love the smell of lavender but I've never had lavender ice cream before. Definitely something to watch out for while in France ^.^ That is one grand church. I love the colors of the murals. And the organ is amazing too. I've never seen one in real life before and it looks huge! Your comments on St Michael cracked me up. LOL! Once again, thanx for sharing. I imagine if I were to go to France, I'd have quite a bit of culture shock too. I had it when I visited Melbourne about six years back... in a good way that is :)

Béa said...

Tes photos sont toujours aussi superbes, bravo et merci .

Dianne said...

bonjour kirsty~ I've loved this trip to Cassis - At our local market I buy a beautiful fromage "Bleu-de-Cassis" perhaps it comes from this lovely Cassis. It's delicious!

~Dianne~

Susan said...

Thanks Kirsty- it's on my list for next year! Your photos are stunning! Much more than 'not bad'!!!

Unknown said...

Howdy Kirsty,

I am French and have been living in the U.S. for a long time and your beautiful pictures make me totally home sick even though I am originally from Lorraine and my parents now live in the Dordogne.
I recently went to the Houston International Quilt Festival and I spent a long time studying a quilt from Lenore Crawford that depicted the port of Cassis. She won a ribbon for it too. You can find a picture of it at Quilts.com (don't forget the S in quilts) among the 2010 winners in the Art-Pictorial section. I am sure you will really enjoy it.
I am so glad to see you enjoy your time in my country.

Annick
annick5424@gmail.com

Kirsty @ Bonjour Quilts said...

Thanks so much for sharing that Annick - I had a look, what a fabulous work of art!

Here's a direct link for those who'd like to see:

Port of Cassis


http://quilts.com/fqf10/enVivo/IQAWinners/12b-APict.jpg.html

You'll have to copy and paste - my code is pretty crappy.

Sara Louise said...

Definitely one of my favorite places in France so far

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...