The haute ville and the Bastion de l'Étendard

The haute ville is reached through the Bastion de l'Étendard, a squat sixteenth-century gun platform that guards the only land approach. Once inside, the town is a grid of tall, narrow Genoese houses on lanes barely wide enough for two people, opening now and then onto a gap with nothing beyond it but sea a hundred metres down. Whole terraces stand on rock that visibly overhangs the water, which is the single fact everyone comes here for.

Three things to work. The bastion terrace itself gives a clean view back over the harbour and the calanque. The lanes give texture — pale stone, worn steps, washing, arches braced between facades — and stay usably shaded when the sun is high. And the path west along the cliff to the marine cemetery gives the town's own profile from outside: the whole line of houses on the edge, best in the last hour when the stone goes warm and the sea behind it goes dark.

Light and orientation: the cliff faces south and west, so the town front-lights in the afternoon. Morning is flat here, but the lanes are empty then, which is the trade.

Crowds: in July and August the haute ville moves at a shuffle from mid-morning until evening, and the narrow lanes leave no room to step back. May, June and September are a different town. Shoes with grip — the lane stones are polished and steep.