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Europe 2016 Cassis, La Ciotat and Luminy
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Marseilles proved to be a great place to stay for 8 nights as I was able to make a few day trips to interesting places.

Just to the East of Marseilles I visited three fascinating locations: Cassis, La Ciotat and Luminy. As you can see on the map below, these three are located within, or close to, the Calanques National Park, a rugged mountainous area, with deep and long bays often called the Fjords of the Mediterranean.

Cassis has a fort perched high up above the town. Apparently, it is a private residence and does not accept visitors, but it does provide a dramatic backdrop for tourists and locals.
Just to the West of Cassis we come to the Calanques, a wild region with long inlets, like fjords, cutting into the landscape. These inlets provide safe harbours for boats of all kinds.
This is the mouth of the bay we saw a couple of photos back.
Back in the harbour of Cassis.
A close up of the private castle. Very photogenic!
La Ciotat.

I think that the yellow building may be the Council Chambers, but don't take my word for that.

That great rock is part of the Calanques, although it seemed to be geologically quite different from the rocks in Luminy, as we can see later on this page.
This hillside near La Ciotat looks like it is made of conglomerate or sedimentary rocks, while the rocks in Luminy (shown later on this page) resemble hard granite.
This is what makes La Ciotat very special! The Lumiere Brothers showed the very first movie here to the general public. They had invented the cinematograph which allowed viewing by many people in contrast to Edison's "peepshow".
Luminy, on the way to the coast. You can see that the rocks here are quite different to the ones near La Ciotat.
A vertigo inspiring view of a small boat harbour way below.