Sailing in France – The Golfe du Lion

Collioure and Marseille

OK – slowly but surely I’m catching up on the blogs… after this one I’ll only be a couple of weeks behind…

The Golfe du Lion has become a location of interest to Geoff and I during this sailing trip because, if there’s going to be wind it’s going to be here. So this part of the trip took a bit of planning, some luck and a dash across the Golfe before the next lot of wind set in.

Our first stop Collioure

Collioure is an ancient old coastal town in France famous for many things including it’s artistic history with famous visitors such as Matisse and Dufy having stayed there.

We arrived around midday to find a beautiful harbour with mooring buoys scattered around the bay. It wasn’t busy so we picked up a mooring buoy and within 10 mins were greeted by the harbour master. We thought we might have to pay to stay there but 25 euros did seem a bit steep for the use of a floating bit of plastic for the night plus, we had to vacate at 10pm for an hour as there was a fireworks display taking place in the marina. But, it was so beautiful, we were tired and I can never risk the opportunity to watch fireworks so we paid up and decided to make the most of being in such a nice town.

We had apparently arrived in the middle of a festival and as we entered town it was heaving with tourists and festivities. From helicopter displays, choirs singing (badly) and rowing races. The town was beautiful with some fantastic art shops/ galleries, hundreds of places to eat and lots of beautiful narrow streets to explore. If you happen to be around this way then I’d recommend a quick visit.

We had lunch in town and dinner on-board before heading out of the marina to sit and watch the fireworks along with the local boats which were covered in brightly coloured lanterns. Despite thinking the harbour master was a bit cautious sending us out of the port for our safety – we were glad when ashes started dropping all over the marina. The fireworks display was really good too. I took some video of it but am not sure how to upload a video file from my camera to uTube – as soon as I work it out I’ll up load them. Once they had finished it was a race back into the marina to make sure we got the same buoy as before and it wasn’t taken up by another boat – we made it and were safely tied up for a good nights sleep.

Before leaving the following day we went back into town for one last wander and so Geoff could watch NZ play in the world cup. Our next sail was a long one, across the Golfe of Lyon, to Marseille (120 miles) so getting a few hours on land was very welcome.

Sailing from Collioure to Marseille

We thought this trip would take us just over 24 hours so we set off in the afternoon. As soon as we left the wind got up and we were steaming along at 8 knots or more on a reach – it couldn’t have been more perfect. At this rate it’d take us 14 not 24 hours.

Geoff got the fishing line out and as the sun started to set we started to catch fish. No Tuna this time but Mackerel. We thought they were baby tuna so we threw them back into the sea rather than keeping them – next time however will be a different storey. After the fish flurry the wind started to drop off. We sailed for as long as we could but had to give in and turn on the motor. We were still way ahead of schedule though which was a nice feeling.

It was a beautiful sunset and sun rise and a very quiet night. The wind got up again in the morning and we sailed again towards Marseille arriving fairly early. We were give our berth and headed straight for a shower and then a quick sleep before we explored Marseille.

Marseille was nice but not my favourite place in France. After sailing around the Balearics and exploring anchorages and marinas along the Spanish and French Coast Marseille was like mooring in the middle of Trafalgar Square. Busy, traffic everywhere, honking horns, ambulance and police car sirens and lots of noise. The town had some beautiful places to visit including the old port where we were staying but, I don’t think I’d come back here again in a hurry. We did the main sights that night and in the morning and then we were very ready to leave.

The next night we anchored just off the islands by Marseille – the Iles De Frioul. A very popular location for the locals who come out on their day boats, swim and relax in the sunshine. We found a spot to anchor in amongst all the boats. We were looking forward to exploring this coast with all the islands, Calanques and nature reserves. There’s too much to write about it here so I’ll be setting up a new blog and posting it soon. Hopefully I’ll be up to date by the end of the week.

And for the book up-date

OK – so we’re down the reading the books we’ve picked up on our travels. Here’s one I read on this leg of the trip:

• The Last Night, Alex Scarrow: Mmmm this reminded me of a TV programme that was on at home just as we were leaving. It’s abut a major disaster that hits the world (in this case an oil shortage) where the world comes to a stand still – no water, food, transport, police etc. The book follows a family tht were separated during the disaster and are trying to reunite to support each other. It’s never going to win a literary award but was a good page turner and kept me entertained for a couple of days.

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