Day 3 - entering Verdon

We ended our stay in the calanques with a morning swim in calanque Samena, just a few steps from our b&b. It was super refreshing, though we didn't start out long because the current was very strong.

Then we drove out to the Verdon region. Our hotel was by Lac St Croix - a lake with amazingly green blue waters. Our room had a terrace with a fantastic view.

We rented a kayak further down on the lake and kayaked into the Gorge du Verdon - aka grand canyon of France. The water was a gem stone green (due to its mineral content) and super refreshing. The canyon gorgeous as we kayaked down. At the end, we parked the kayak and took a cool and invigorating swim.

We had dinner at le Cote Lac, a lake side restaurant a few minutes from our hotel. We had a great view of the lake as we ate and watched the sunset. It was also cool that our table was made private by gave its own private hedges enclosing it on 3 sides.

Day 2 - Les Calanques

After sleeping in, we had a leisurely breakfast in the garden of our b&b.  We drove to Cassis midday and had a lovely lunch overlooking the pier. 

View of Cassis massif

More yummy fish and ile flottante (floating island) - a favorite dessert of mine in France.

fried fishies

Dorade

Ile Flottante

Then we took a boat tour of the calanques. We went on the 90min tour of 8 calanques. It was super pleasant with the salty wind and occasional spray and amazing views of the calanques from many angles. I had originally planned a kayak trip along the calanques but this was actually much better - we saw more calanques and from a better vantage point. I highly recommend it!!

Candy store

For dinner, we went to le Chateau, which is a restaurant at the tip of calanque Sormiou. It was a harrowing but majestic drive down and all the food was great. The view was beautiful. We got lucky and got a table because of a cancellation.

yummy garlicky mussels

salad of assorted marinated fish

View from Le Chateau restaurant of Calanque Sormiou

Totenes farcies a la provencale (stuffed squid)

red snapper fillet with eggplant and potatoes

Start of trip

Well, it didn't start out as planned. Instead of a quick hop to Montreal followed by a flight to Marseilles, we had to scramble for an alternative route to Marseilles through Munich since our first flight was too delayed to make the second. But after 20 hours of traveling we finally made it to Les Calanques.

We had a fantastic dinner by the water and then crashed for a well needed rest.

Here's some pictures of dinner and our b&b.

Off to Provence

Limestone cliffs overlooking turquoise waters, curvy roads along the precipice carved by a gemstone green river, lavender fields swaying in the breeze, sipping cotes du rhone at a vineyard...

These are the sights I look forward to during my week in Provence. Take off, t minus 3 hours 30 minutes.