wrep

We're going to France next month and spending first 4 days in Cassis. We'd like to hike one day (rather than take boat, which we've already done) from the town of Cassis to the Calanques. How long, approximately, would this take? Are there actual beaches to be found where we could picnic and play w/baby, or is it all rocks? We have a 10 month old whom we plan on carrying in a backpack. Which leads me to my next question. If it is not too grueling then would anyone have any backpack recommendations?

Underhill

ttt

kappa

Hi, I will be in Cassis on 8-9 Sep in order to do 3 calanques on foot. They are Port Miou (sp?), Port Pins and En-Vau in the order of closer distance from Cassis. I did last year Sugiton, Morgiou(sp?)and Marseilleveyre (sp? sorry about so many sp?'s). My hotel (Cassitel)'s receptionist Annabelle told me on the phone : from Cassis, the closest calanque, Port-Miou is like 30 minutes walk, Port-Pins 30 min. more and En-Vau is 1.5hrs. Actually I don't remember whether she said 1.5 hrs more from Port-Pins or 1,5hrs altogether from Cassis. I don't know about backpackers with babies but she also said I should take a very good hiking shoes because the road is sometimes quite rough and rocky. I have some ideas about it from my experience of last year. Sugiton had a very rough & rocky beach (no sand at all). I would not take a baby there. I'm looking forward to seeing the calanque of En-Vau. It seems En-Vau is often considered the most beautiful of all the calanques between Marseille and Cassis. I was impressed by Sugiton and Morgiou so if En-Vau is better than that, wow.

kappa

Further research has told me : the farthest calanque of the three, En-Vau is 1-1,5hrs from Cassis.

kappa

In case you are interested, here are the photos I took last September in Sugiton. There are 2 pages.

http://photobucket.com/albums/v282/masuko/sugiton/

From Marseille city center, Bus No20 to Luminy (30 min)and 1 hour walk from there.

bgans

I don't know about the particular hike you are planning, but the best babybackpacks on the market right now are made by Kelty. They have a variety of models, starting in the $100 range (and up). I have an older (no longer sold) model and I can usually manage to carry my 22 lb, 14 month old daughter for up to two hours without either one of us objecting. I've heard the new models are even better. You can find them at most baby stores or high-end camping stores. Have a great time.

wrep

Thank you for all these helpful responses. Maybe the Calanques is not the most practical excursion w/a baby, but we'll hopefully do some hiking somewhere, at some point during our Provencal travels and I'll let you know how it goes.