A short drive away from La Ciotat in the South of France lies La Calanque de Figuerolles. With a secluded beach, restaurant, and hotel, this beautiful spot is perfect for a day trip, a quick visit, or even a night stay. Come with me and see why visiting here should be on your list.
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Okay, so you’ll come to notice a theme here if you’ve read a few of my France destination travel posts. First of all, thanks to my relationship with a french dude, there’s a significant amount of Fran-glish in my vocabulary now. It’s actually pretty funny and just a little bitty bit embarrassing.
Many times Yann will tell me where we’re going, obviously in French, and in the past I’m not going to lie, I’d gotten a little too lazy to look up the translation and so I’d just say I’ll see whatever it is when we get there. I was never worried.
In this post
La Calanque de Figuerolles
I’d never heard of the Calanques before and as much as Yann tried to describe it to me, I still couldn’t envision it. Because I had no idea what he was trying to describe to me, it made this little stop so much sweeter when we arrived.
On all my past trips to France, I’ve let Yann take the wheel and he’s done an amazing job with everywhere we’ve gone. I’ve discovered so many beautiful places I’d never heard of before and seen more than I ever imagined.
So when he said he wanted to show me the Calanques, I was like, okay, yeah, sure, s’all good. I’m sure it’ll be great.
When I say my breath was taken away, I am not even exaggerating.
Getting there
After our quick stop in Bandol, we drove the short distance to the Calanques de Figuerolles.
We parked the car on a residential street lined with houses and I could also see houses in the distance, so I really had no clue what type of view to expect being in a residential area. We then walked along the road and down a path.
Y’all when we rounded the corner and my eyes feasted on the view of the Calanques, my mouth dropped open!
Amazing views
I was having an “Is this really real” moment, one of many I experienced on this trip.
Your girl finally understood what “Calanques” were.
And it was amazing!
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For a quick explanation, Calanques are a unique type of rock formation found exclusively along the Mediterranean coastline. They’re formed when limestone is eroded away over hundreds of years to create small inlets along the cliff edges.
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The view was so incredible and overlooked the Mediterranean sea. The cliffs rose up high with cute but kinda weird shapes on either side and they had interesting pocket-like holes in them. Green shrubs sprouted out of them and it made for such a pretty view.
Lying between the mountains was a gorgeous coloured body of water and a small beach area.
Related: La Route des Cretes
I’m pretty sure there was a lot of ” Omg’s” that dropped out of my mouth.
How did beautiful places like this exist?! And how did I not even know about them?!
Yann and I walked down the steps, snapping photos along the way, and made our way down to the beach.
Luckily, because it was off-season and it was still fairly early in the morning, there were only a handful of other people there.
We pretty much had the beach to ourselves, it was amazing.
I was so incredibly impressed with this stop, I didn’t think my day could get any better.
Fyi, It did. But that’s another story.
But good things must come to an end
Unfortunately, we didn’t stay long but we did stay just long enough to get some more pictures and enjoy the gorgeous view. After getting our fill, we headed back up the stairs and back to the car to continue on our journey.
Related: A trip to Cassis, a colourful harbor town in Provence
I’m always a little sad that we don’t spend too much time in one place but I’m always happy that I get the chance to visit in the first place.
I highly recommend visiting here if you get the chance and if time allows, plan to spend the day there or even the night!
You definitely won’t regret it!
How to get to the Calanques
La Calanque de Figuerolles is about 21 mins From Cassis, Simply follow the D559 to D141 in La Ciotat. Then continue on D141 and take Avenue François Billoux to Avenue Figuerolles.
For step-by-step directions, click here to go to google maps!
The parking to reach the Calanque has very few spots, you may have to look in the streets to the Parc du Mugel
Plan to take public transportation? Check out the moovitapp for detailed directions on how to reach the Calanque from multiple different locations.
What to do at the Calanque des Figuerolles
Apart from lounging around on the beach and simply enjoying the view the Calanque offer, there is also a restaurant there for when you get hungry.
Yann and I normally pack food to save money during our travels, but it’s always a fun and more immersive experience to have a meal in the places you’re visiting, so if time is on your side, I would definitely suggest trying out the restaurant. The patio has an outstanding view of the Calanque. There is also a small hotel located off the restaurant if you wanted to extend your stay.
Other places to visit nearby
Notre Dame de la grande Chapel
La Ciotat– the town and old port
For more information on visiting this beautiful place, on the restaurant and the hotel, you can visit the official page for the Calanque de Figuerolles
Until next time, Stay blessed ♡
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