Visualize electric blue water so clear it hardly seems real. Chalky cliffs that cut a jagged line across the sky. A dry landscape of rocks and scrub that meet the vast expanse of the Mediterranean. These are Les Calanques.

The Calanques aren’t super well known outside of France, which is surprising considering their beauty and majesty. “Calanques” means “rocky inlets” in French, and this is exactly what they are— peaceful coves and inlets. The water is calm, and the hills that rise around it are wild and natural. I kicked off my summer of travel here sunbathing and swimming, one-day by kayak and one-day by hiking.

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Day 1: Kayaking

Kayaking is a great way to see multiple Calanques in a day, as you can glide in and out of the inlets and tie up to rocks without having to hike for hours. It also comes with a sense of adventure: you push off from a cute little port and go toward the open sea, with nothing but a map and your own arm strength to guide you.

Ana and I used Marseille as our base for the Calanques, though we didn’t spend much time there as it’s a suboptimal city. To kayak, we took a 25ish minute train from Gare St. Charles to Cassis.

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Cassis is an adorable little port village. We wandered the bright streets, picked up sandwiches and chips for a mid-kayak-picnic, and drank bottles of iced tea in the shade of a flower-adorned alley. By 2 p.m. we were getting geared up at the kayak rental place, where we’d made a reservation. We used Lo’kayak, and the whole process with them from reserving online to bringing back the kayaks at the end of the day was really smooth. We rented a 2-seater kayak for 60 euros with a 5-hour time slot, so it was only 30 euros each for an entire afternoon on the water. A pretty good deal!

As novices we kept our ambitions reasonable and visited 3 Calanques, which you can see on the Lo’kayak map above. Since Port Miou has a lot of boats and isn’t great for swimming, we just checked it out from a distance and spent most of our time at the beautiful Port Pin and En Vau inlets.

It took us well over an hour to reach Port Pin (which is slower than the average pace, but kayaking is strenuous, okay!). Luckily the journey was scenic, and not just because one of the beaches we passed by was full of nudists. Relax, I’m kidding! There were nekkid people, but it was much more funny than scenic.

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The Port Pin Calanque was gorgeous. The water was teal and crystal clear; huge stone cliffs rose up on either side of us; boats dotted the cove and people were perched on rocks everywhere we looked. We tied up to a shady rock and climbed up to it gingerly, our toes navigating the pointy edges. We picnicked and people watched and swam.

Eventually we paddled to En Vau, which had a completely different feel. More open, with a pebble beach that we lounged on. It felt almost prehistoric due to its towering rock formations and high cliffs. And just so majestic. I can’t emphasize enough how crazy blue and clear that water was!

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By the time we left, the sun was behind the clouds and the horizon took on a hazy appearance as if someone had draped gauze over the world. The sea was silvery and soft. The way back was tiring, but we managed to turn in the kayaks on time and get back to Marseille in one piece, despite being damp and sunburnt and salt-crusted.

Day 2: Hiking

Monday, Ana took a day trip to Arles. As I’d already been there, I did a 90-minute solo-hike to Le Calanque de Sugiton. I absolutely recommend this hike! Finding the entrance was fairly easy; there were many other people around so I wasn’t worried about getting lost in the wilderness, and the level is totally doable.

If you’re interested in budget-minded logistics, I took the B1 bus toward Campus de Luminy (which leaves from the Castellane stop in Marseille). I got off toward the end of the route, at the Parc National des Calanques stop. From there the hiking entrance was easy to find.

I got a lot of info on the hike from this blog.

Since I went in July, I was lucky that I was even able to hike. Mid to late summer is fire season and sometimes hiking is forbidden if conditions are risky. You can check the danger level here, and scroll near the bottom to see “Les Calanques entre Marseille et Cassis,” which is the area this post discusses.

During the hike I took a detour to the Belvedere Look Out Point and marveled at the views. At some point when you see so much beauty all around you, every direction competing for your gaze, you become used to it and just expect nothing less than stunning when rounding a new point. Everywhere around me were rocky humongous mountains that cut a beautiful white profile against the blue sky, the sea soft in the distance.

After a slightly treacherous 10 final minutes of my descent, I finally made it to the calanque and settled on a rock. Later, I went for the most wonderful swim. The water was utterly transparent and cool, sometimes turquoise and sometimes indigo; from time to time I saw fish dart under me, and once on looking down I was startled to see a diver way below me. He or she was so far down they appeared tiny, and I realized that it must be so much deeper than I’d thought originally, since the clearness of the water tricks the eye into thinking the bottom isn’t far away.

Everywhere around me people lounged and swam and climbed up cliff faces and vaulted themselves into the water. I jumped once myself, off this huge chunk of rock (a small island, really) that shot out of the water super tall. After ensuring no one was dying I climbed up myself, fingers digging into the little crevices on a sheer slope. The thrill of plunging into that water from 20 feet up was amazing.

The hike back up was hot and tiring, as it was all uphill in direct sunlight. I felt super gross by the time I made it back up to the starting point, but I would do it again in a heart beat because swimming in that Calanque was totally magical.

The Calanques are rewarding because no matter how you see them, you must work to get there. Adventure is part of the process. Of course, if you have a bigger budget than I did you can rent a boat or yacht, as I saw many do, or even go on a climbing and canyoning excursion with a guide. Whatever you choose, try to make it to the Calanques if you ever find yourself around in the south of France. I’m sure you’ll find it as remarkable as I did.