Getting the shivers of reverence

Above Calanque Port-Pin looking back to the Cap Canaille near Cassis. I’m in the south of France on the first leg of a holiday that combines a few days in Cassis, a seven day walk through the villages of Provence and then some travelling and visiting of places like Arles, Avignon and elsewhere in the region. While we are in Cassis we have been hiking on the sea cliffs, which is my very favourite form of walking. Around here the cliffs are limestone escarpments that rise up out of the Mediterranean to heights of almost 400 meters. The Cap Canaille that I’m looking at now is considered the highest sea cliff on the French coast. Last year we visited the west coast of Italy and although I have been to the Mediterranean several times, each time I visit I am more struck and more taken with the history of these waters. Of course its all around you, in the architecture, the most notable of which is the defence constructions because this place has long been the sight of conflict, war, invasion…