Cassis

Being in Cassis is like being on a vacation during your vacation. We did a lot of leisure walking along the harbor and every street in town, sat on the beach, spent an hour or two in the casino (which we happened upon), did a boat trip to the Calanques - a must do, went down to the harbor early in the morning to watch the fishermen sell their catch to the restaurants, shopped at the Friday market...you get the picture. I consulted Patricia Wells' Food Lover's Guide to France and we had dinner at Chez Gilbert. It was excellent! A reservation is a good idea if you'd like to sit outside with a view of the water. We also ate at La Paillote with wonderful seafood. All of the restaurants have menus posted outside, so you can decide based on your likes and dislikes. I think you can arrange for the famous bouillabaise if you order ahead of time, but we didn't do that. We also had very casual lunches; just picked up sandwiches to go and had picnics on the water.