Châteauneuf-les-Martigues

We planned to get up early this morning and take advantage of having the beach to ourselves for a swim, but the sea felt pretty cold and we were too chicken to take the full plunge. I went for a knee deep paddle and called that it! Darren ventured in up to his navel but he also wimped out.
It wasn’t too long before people started arriving to spend the day, spreading their towels, buckets and spades and other beach essentials out. As it was a beautiful sunny Sunday we couldn’t really blame them for that. For us though it was time to get back on the road so while I prepared Ivy for the trip Darren took Bliss for one last dip in the lovely cool water. I was just about done with Ivy when Darren came back all flustered saying we’ve got to go now! Guess what she did? Bliss... in front of a beach full of people who might I add were not impressed decided to have her morning poo in the sea!!! In front of everyone, all staring at Darren disgusted like he’d done it!! He couldn’t pick it up obviously as it was in the water so he just did the walk of shame back to the van. Mortified 😂 Needless to say, we left, sharpish!

We drove further along the coast, passing lagoons with the surprise of seeing wild flamingos 🦩, long avenues of beech trees leading to towns and villages each with their own unique charm. We were hoping to park at a place Darren had found in a bay further along but when we got there the road down was closed. We parked up where we were and walked down to the bay to see if there was any other way down, but once we arrived we realised immediately we didn’t really like the feel of the place anyway. Whilst the tiny beach area was really nice, complete with a resident swan, there were loads of kids, life guards, parents and grandparents and it all felt unfriendly somehow. Like it was theirs alone and we weren’t welcome. Bliss certainly wasn’t allowed on the nice part of the beach, and tbh the thought of her repeating what she’d done earlier today here was simply horrifying.

There was another place not too far away that was quite a new parking area and it didn’t have any reviews on the app. We thought we’d try it anyway as it was getting late. On first inspection it seemed it was just a large gravel car park by a small marina, nothing special at all, but could be okay to sleep for the night. It’s funny how you arrive somewhere and sometimes you just know instantly it’s not right and sometimes you have to just sit for a while and soak up the essence of a place before you know if it’s worth staying or not. This place was not particularly pretty but it was quiet, felt peaceful and safe so we stayed. I’m glad we did, as it grew darker the sunset came down over the rocks on the far jetty, as the light faded one of the rocks looked like a huge bust of Jesus complete with a thorny crown in silhouette . Behind us, a few streets back was some kind of gas burning chimney flare that had flames coming out of the top of it every few minutes. That lit up the rocks and the boats that were moored in the marina in a lovely fireplace like orange glow. Bats started their evening antics, flying around the sky in front of us putting on a show of all their best moves. We were the only people there, it just felt so calm and safe. We laid on the couch together with the side doors open enjoying the show with a cool evening breeze and a complete lack of any pesky flies or mozzies. The park up turned out to be altogether much nicer than it had first appeared.
Once it was fully dark though we were ready for our bed so secured the doors and windows and settled down for a peaceful night’s sleep.Read more