Happy Calanques Day!

Today was a day to get out and enjoy nature. Rebecca had found out information about the "calanques" that are found along the Southern coast of France. Calanques are natural formations in the rocks along the coast. Basically, they are narrow inlets that formed when the roofs of sea caves collapsed into the sea. The result is these beautiful rock formations and incredible beach and rocky shores. Some of these calanques can only be reached by hiking through the woods or by boat. We chose to see them by boat.

To get to our boat tour, we had a drive through the countryside as we headed South to Sanary-sur-Mer. Along the way we saw beautiful rolling hills and landscapes. We rolled into Sanary and headed straight to the harbour, where we parked the car and walked the rest of the time.

We grabbed a few things at the market there and found ourselves a bench to have our lunch/snack while we waited for our boat tour to start.

View from our lunch bench

 
Rue in Sanary

Sanary-sur-Mer Harbour
We piled on to the boat with the other sight seers and grabbed our seats. We sat on the left side of the boat in one of the two seater benches that were there. It was explained that we were going to go out and see the first couple calanques that are nearby and then we would be travelling for a little while until we reached the shores of the Calanques National Park, nearer to Marseilles, where we would explore several of the calanques.

It was another gorgeous, sunny day so all was well as we checked out the first couple calanques before our longer ride to the national park. We got sprayed with a little mist but nothing to worry about.

Rock formation

 
Another rock formation

When I say I got soaked on the longer ride, I am not exagerating. It was windy and the water was a bit choppy but, for whatever reason, our side of the boat got drenched. After the first couple splashes, Rebecca (and most people) moved over to the middle part of the boat. I wasn't too wet at the point so I figured, it's a hot, sunny day, I'll be dry in no time, no big deal, I'll stay put. The big wave that hit us shortly after that drenched me completely. (The quick/hot shoe on my camera has some exposed circuits and I saw a warning every time I took a picture for the rest of the day that the "accessory" I had installed was not compatible. So sea water plus camera equals bad?)

Beach in calanque

Rock climbing the calanques

We arrived at the park and spent the next hour and half going in and around these calanques (I spent a lot of that time slowly drying as well). These natural formations were incredibly varied and each was beautiful. At one point we passed a formation that had clouds around the top; it was explained that these were the highest cliffs in France. We took a whole bunch of pictures and laughed and enjoyed our time on the boat.

Calanques for days

Highest cliffs in France

The tour ended with a one hour ride back so we just sat back (there was no splashing on the way back) and enjoyed our evening cruise on the Mediterranean. We walked along the shore for awhile and then piled into the rental car to return to Aix where we found a late dinner and called it a night. Fun thing: on the way back to Aix, the GPS/google maps gave us directions, as usual. What stood out about this trip is, when telling us the direction to go it would list all the things in the direction we were heading, and in this list Nice was listed last. Google maps doesn't have a strong grasp on how to pronounce things and would pronounce Nice like the English word nice. Not a big deal but the way she was saying "nice" it felt like she hit it a little harder so it sounded like she was super stoked that we were heading for Provence. "Follow signs for Arles, Aix-en-Provence...NICE!!!" More exploration of the French countryside tomorrow!

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