Cassis

The darling chocolate shopppe with Nutella cookies (see below).

Isn't this great? Better cover up in the summer!

Outdoor gardens!

We do love some soft serve

Boats!

We had to walk about 1.5 miles from the train station to town

The gals I decided to go to Cassis this weekend!

It's about time we really take advantage of our proximity to the French Riviera, so we took the train to the small port town for the day.

We arrived around 2pm, and had the most delicious lunch at a darling seaside restaurant. It was slightly cloudy and grey, but really set the ambiance for a spring day by the sea.

As we sat inside our little diner, we stared out huge glass bay windows, into a small park with green grass and palm trees swaying in the wind. The park, under cover of the giant palm frawns, was littered with all types of men, old and young, playing bocce ball.

They were all dressed very nicely, in collared shirts and lovely sweater vests, playing despite the weather conditions. It must have been some sort of Saturday tradition.

After our lunch of some much needed salad, we walked the street right on the harbor, and indulged in some soft serve frozen yogurt, which happens to be my absolute favorite treat, especially during a day at the beach.

Walking on the beach in the winter is always an emotional experience, at least for me. Whenever I am near the water and it's cloudy and stormy, it makes the ocean seem so powerful and angry, like at any moment it could just swallow us all up.

In my imagination, King Triton or Posiden will just appear on a rock with that three-pronged thing they always have, and give the Greek Gods something to talk about. It feels like there is a much greater force out there, that is much more powerful than me.

I always feel this way during a storm, especially near the ocean.

So, of course, while we are enjoying our proximity to the waves, it begins to downpour, and we seek shelter inside the charming seaside shops and cafe's. The late afternoon was spent ducking in and out of pint-size shops with charming, chintzy trinkets.

Navigating the streets of a small town in Southern France is not only completely entertaining, it is also tends to bring you back to another time, when things were simpler, and things moved a little more slowly.

The streets are so narrow you practically have to walk single file, and the outdoor gardens are something to be written about in plant magazines. Petite little tables with two single rickety metal chairs sit outside, with the wine glasses still out from an afternoon delight.

It was wonderful and sometimes soothing to waltz through the streets together, sometimes being chatty, sometimes being lost in thought. I always look at doors and windows and wonder what the lives of the people who live inside them are like.

Are they young, or old? Do children live there? Are they happy with their lives? How did they come to live in this picture-esque French Riviera town? Are they even French?

After the afternoon of shopping (window ONLY), and winding through the streets and hills, we ended back on the main street, and discovered a lovely chocolate shoppe (see above) where we got cookies sandwiched in nutella. What could be better, I mean really?

There are so many things I will miss about France. I can't even begin to list them all, but one I think of often is a independent patisserie, where the owner works the cash register, and everything is made on location, even the huge chocolate eggs that are for Easter festivities.

I can't help but go into a vintage chocolate shoppe..even if it just to smell the aroma of freshly made pain au chocolates (chocolate croissants for my fellow anglophiles).

We have plans to go back to Cassis the first week in May and spend the night. We left something there, our hearts.