Fotografi a Cassis

Cassis gives you a harbour session and a wilderness session in one town. The harbour is the easy half: pastel facades, fishing boats and café awnings, at their best at golden hour when Cap Canaille — the great red cliff across the bay — catches fire behind the masts. The calanques are the other half, and they cost effort in proportion to their beauty: Port-Miou is a flat walk from town, Port-Pin about thirty minutes further, and En-Vau a genuine hour's rocky hike — its white cliffs and turquoise wedge of water only get direct sun near midday, so time it accordingly, or book a boat from the port and arrive unruffled. Two constraints rule summer: the massif can close entirely on high fire-risk days — check the day's access map before promising a calanque — and the mistral shuts the Route des Crêtes, otherwise the region's best sunset drive along the top of Cap Canaille. Proposals: the En-Vau belvedere, or the harbour at blue hour.