Today we are off to the beach. I postponed the bike day to tomorrow so we’d be back in town early enough to see some live music. Oh, living in a land that so values culture. Free concerts every Saturday afternoon so people can enjoy before dinner.
Pack up, out the door to the train station and buy our tickets to Sausset-les-Pins, one of the little beach towns on Le Cote Bleu (the blue coast), which is a protected marine area. First the 40 minute ride to the Marseille station, then onto the train that runs along the coast. We are walking through the little town at about noon. Decide to stop for lunch at a harbor wide restaurants to enjoy moules frites and some fish soup:
Then we hit the road again and head to beaches on one side…too isolated…..I need a place to change my suit, and could I maybe rent an umbrella? Walk back past our restaurant and find 3 little (smooth) rocky beaches in the other direction. It looks like there are lounge chairs to rent at the far side of the beach, but we decide to just use our towels. We make camp:
and our day at the beach begins. Very sunny and warm, and the water is brisk and refreshing; not that I make it all the way in, only to my knees. Unless I can jump into that temperature water all at once, I can never make it in. Matt goes out
with goggles to swim and the rest of us lay out like good little fishes. It’s a lot under the beating sun, though, and Matt and I head to a little beach cafe for a milkshake and cribbage. Their idea of a milkshake is milk, ice and some kind if flavoring powder, but we sucked it down quickly enough!
Miss Tay has had enough by about 4, so we pack it up and head back to the train at the time I read on the schedule. The monitor lists the same train, but it soon disappears from the list. Uh oh, gotta wait another 30 minutes for a train. Meanwhile, Michael and I are chatting with two French women
about which beaches along the route are nicest, where to eat when we are in Marseille on Monday, and suggestions for our visit to the Luberon tomorrow. There were great fun – a couple of girlfriends hanging at the beach. Close to my age, I felt real camaraderie.
By the time we caught this train (the view from),
and then the next from Marseille, we were home late, late late. Matt decided to dress up and go check out the local casino. The rest of us walked over to the takeaway vietnamese place recommended to us, but it was closed. A pizza? We wander to find a place and order a couple to go. Don’t get back with them until about 10:15. Yikes! I’m starting to be on the kids’ schedule. Munch it down and off to sleep.