Le Castellet

Le Castellet is a tiny medieval town about a half-hour from La Ciotat. One of the teachers I work with took me there this weekend. It was very lovely, and reminded me of a Provencal Door County, in a way: lots of little boutiques, gift shops, restaurants, etc., cashing in on the ancient aspect of the town. 

According to Wikipedia, 111 people live there as of 2009. It wasn't exactly crowded when we went, but I can imagine how crazy it might get in the summer. There is also a medieval festival/Renaissance fair each year. I think they do some sort of Knights Templar re-enactment in front of the church.

Eglise St. Anne

 The Mayor's office is particularly cute, being made out of stone, and the view is amazing: Le Castellet is perched on a hill, all the better to see your enemies coming from miles away, I suppose. I'm sure the ramparts are not particularly useful anymore, except to keep tourists from falling down the hill...

Chateau Mairie

One of the coolest parts was the "four banal" in one of the shops, which dates from 1447. A "four banal" is roughly translated as a "community oven." The one in Le Castellet is round, like a turret or a spire (probably the best way to expel the smoke) and it was used up until the 20th century. Basically, the townfolk wouldn't be able to bake their own bread at home, because the building and maintaining of an over would be way too expensive individually. So, they would pay a tax to some noble with a big enough house to have an oven (and it was big--think 20-30 m diameter, at least) and thus secure a spot in the oven for their bread on baking day. Ingenious, no?

Calanques--Mugel

Here are--as promised--some photos of the other calanques near Parc Mugel in La Ciotat. There is a small botanical garden and a regional park, where the calanques are, as well as a public beach. It's way too cold to be swimming now that the Mistral has come to stay, but these photos were taken a couple of weeks ago, when the weather was still 15C, or around 60F. You can explore the trails, the park or just have a picnic! It's quite beautiful, even at this time of year, since the sun is out most days in Provence, and the sky is a deep blue that goes on forever.

It kills me how people around here are bundled up as if they're leading excursion to Siberia when the temperature hasn't even hit the freezing point (it's about 5C/40F during the day), though I've been known to complain myself...you get used to a warm climate veeeeery quickly, it seems! As mentioned, the wind is what really does you in: wind chill makes all the difference, and I'd wager that drops the "feels like" temp a good ten degress--all the way down to below freezing! Imagine!

Anyway, enjoy the pictures:

Calanques--Figuerolles

One of the important physical landmarks and main tourist attractions of La Ciotat are the calanques, or the coves, which are a few minutes' walk from the city center.  The calanques are jutting hills of conglomerate and metamorphic rock that line the Mediterranean coast. There are also caves within the hills which you can explore alone or with a tour guide. 

This one is particularly famous--it's on all of the post cards!

It is still possible to swim in the Figuerolles  cove because even though the outside air temperature is in the low 60s F/16-19 C, the water temperature is a nice 77 F/25 C! And here in the shelter of the coves, the wind isn't so bad.

Next, I will post pictures of the Mugel--more to come!