This summer, there is one place I’ve always wanted to go. For quite a while, almost in a lifetime. this place has been my dream.

It’s called Cassis.

Cassis is a beautiful Mediterranean town. It’s 3-4 hours from Paris to Marseille. Then from Marseille to Cassis, you take an express train called TER for 20 minutes. It’s a beautiful seaside village and of course, turquoise water! It’s famous for calanque, which is designated as a national park.

I’ll write about how to buy a cheaper TGV ticket another time but this time, I got 1er class. So comfortable and actually I could have stayed much longer. 3 hours was not enough, to be honest!

Some compared this TGV with the Japanese bullet train (shinkansen) , but I think TGV might be more comfortable.

So, TGV stopped at Avignon, Aix Province, and Marseille, so it was quite an express!

Would have preferred the upper deck so you can see the view better but next time!

The below photo is taken inside of TER train from Marseille to Cassis. It was so clean surprisingly and there’s a socket as well so you can charge your phone :-)

Arrived in Cassis. But no one really was there/ The station was closed for some reason.

From Cassis Station to Cassis town

Once you get there, you can find a bus stop without fail. It’s a very small station. You cannot miss it! :-)

Guess how much the bus ride was…

90 cents!

First, with my terrible french, I thought the bus driver said 90 euro. I was like no way! lol

It takes 30 minutes to get to the center of Cassis. (yes, where all the ports are )

It was so hot in the city! and such a strong sun! So, make sure you bring your chapeaux (hat) and SPF!

この6月末から7月上旬まで、１週間、南仏にある、カシ　という場所にバカンスで行ってきました。

カシは、マルセイユから、TERという特急列車（これが想像以上に新しくてよかった！）にに20−30分で着きます。パリからは、は、TGV(フランスの新幹線）で3時半ほど。

カシで有名なのは、このカランク（入江）。マルセイユから、カシの間の入江に何箇所か、スポットは存在します。

So, there is so much information online about Cassis, but no one really answered my ultimate question.

”Can we go to Calanque easily?? ”

Do we have to hike for one hour? to get there? Some say you can drive close to where the hike starts, etc. But I know so many people are like me, not having enough time or once you start doing research, you cannot stop and you lose time! haha. So here is the tip I can recommend.

(Just a little note, most people who visit Cassis, they usually stay in Marseille and come to Cassis just for 1 day trip or take a boat. Some of my friends warned me it might be a bit too long to stay only in Cassis for a week, but we wanted to just relax and Marseille is not really a relaxing spot (and also a bit ghetto)

So there are 3 ways to get to calanque from Cassis.

1. Hiking

   But this was not our option. lol In this heat, no way to hike for 1 hours! even if I know all the effort would be paid off once you get there.

2. Kayak

   There are some companies offering this kayak and we debated till the very end.

   This is the company it seems to be a major in Cassis.

   Lokayak Cassis

   You can choose either morning or afternoon. But it’s quite a long trip. 3-4 hours. We loved the idea that you can enter calanques by kayaking and you can park it and stay there. But it takes 1 hour to get there at least. So we passed. (how lazy we are, right? lol)

3. BOAT (somehow no website)

   As you can imagine, this is what we took! I really wanted to swim in the water, not only cruise, and wanted to visit at least 2 Calanques. Definitely En Vau. We found this perfect one.

   • You can visit Port Miou, Port Pin, and En Vau.

   • You can swim.

   • You don’t pay more than 30 euros.

   • There’s a max number of persones. (12 passengers were the limit)

Attaching the brochure here so you can check it out!

TBC (次回へ続く)