We have arrived to the town of La Ciotat (see o tat) which is located between Marseille and Toulan in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region of the country. La Ciotat is famed as the site of the first publicly projected motion picture. The film was called L’Arrivee du train en gare de La Ciotat which in loose translation has something to do with arriving in the train station in La Ciotat. The films the work of the Lumiere Brothers who would to on to make many more famous french films. The famed showing of the film dated back to 1895 in Paris but La Ciotat makes claims of having private showings of the film prior to it being shown in Paris and therefore taking credit as hosting the first ever motion picture showing.
The first order of business was decided upon by the kids, a visit to the pool. The water was colder than we all expected but the kids and Martin managed to tough it out and get in. After getting settled into the hotel and finishing up the big swim, we ventured into town to find dinner. The town is very similar to Ocean City or Atlantic City, NJ; Hampton Beach, NH; Clearwater Beach or Miami Beach, FL., in terms of its many beachside restaurants and street vendors. It was a bit more commercialized than I had anticipated. When I visited the Riviera way back in the early 80’s I was in Nice and I do not recall it being as busy and carnival like.
We settled on dinner at Le 2 Soeurs (the 2 sisters). The specialties of the area include mussels served with a choice of sauces (traditional garlic and wine, roquefort cheese or curry) served with pomme frites (fries), filet de leup (a local white fish) served whole for two or more people or filleted for one as well as anchovy pizza and a variety of interesting and substantial salads. The wine of choice in the Provence region is rose and we enjoyed a nice selection from Chateau Pey Neuf, Guy Armand. The first bottle came in a plastic wine bag that served as the wine chiller. I have seen them before in wine magazines but had never used one. The second bottle appeared in a more traditional metal wine cooler. During the course of the meal we were approached by a photographer wanting to take and sell us a photo of our group, no merci. Then we were approached by the street musician who had been playing the saxophone on the nearby street corner. We assumed he was looking to perform privately for us for money, no merci. As it turns out, he was looking for a tip for his playing. We figured that out on the second night we were in the area for dinner. We tipped him generously this time.
After dinner we ventured off in search of dessert knowing we would find many options along the way. When we got the beach area we saw all the kids running around with light up toys that they were launching up into the air so we visited a few of the street vendors until we found the same contraption and bought them for the three kids. By now it was very late and we had big plans for visiting the beach and swimming in the Mediterranean the next day so we headed back to the hotel to get some rest.
The hotel we are staying in is a new experience for us on this trip. It is basically an apartment. It appears that most people rent it for a week or more and they do their eating in the hotel room rather than taking meals out. We did decide to make our own breakfast rather than pay an exorbitant amount of money for basically a breakfast of sweets, fruit and coffee. Shopping at the local marche (market) was an adventure. You had to pay to use a shopping cart (we opted to hand carry everything) and you had to pay for bags (we used our backpacks and hands to tote the goods back). The price of food itself was not too bad and we found some fun things including little cookie sticks packaged with Nutella for dipping, fresh apricots, green and purple plums, butter biscuit/cookies and mini chocolate bars with hazelnuts. Perfect foods for snacking on the go. We were all craving protein for breakfast after so many mornings of croissants, fruit and yogurt so we indulged in some scrambled eggs, bacon (which is more like proscuitto) and real white bread toast!!! We threw in the obligatory fruit and yogurt too.
The time had come for the swim in the Mediterranean. My nephew Evan was particularly excited about this part of the trip. We drove to the beach, found a prime but expensive parking spot nearby and headed for the sand. The beaches are very pebbly, not the soft sand we are used to at home. I selected a few of the prettier pebbles to take home as a remembrance. For those that hadn’t put on their bathing suits before heading to the beach or wanted to change out of them after swimming, they had to pay 60 cents to get into the bathroom to change.
The water was freezing but we all knew we had to get in while we were here. Andrew and Martin had a great time body surfing while the others relaxed on the beach. If I can figure out how to post video I will put one if of my brother in law, he is an amazing body surfer. He gave Andrew a few tips while they were at it.
Croissants and Cafe au Lait 