France Day 11 - B is for Bouillabaisse C is for Cassis

It was a sad goodbye to Marie, Claude, Romain, Heinz & Christine this morning. We promised to keep in touch, wished Marie & Claude good luck in their next place and hit the road for Aix en Provence.

Aix is considered a 'university town' and the cities seem to be the only place in France to find diversity. The main street reminded me a bit of Boston's Newberry Street and our wandering around town was more enjoyable than some other places since we were not battling the extreme heat of our other city jaunts.

As usual, after a lot of debate and indecision, we finally agreed to have a quick lunch in a cafe. We were in the midst of placing our order with our waitress when she abruptly ushered us over to a different section. Little did we know we ordered sandwiches that were considered more of a 'to-go' item than a sit down lunch. We all got steak frites on a roll with diet cokes (aka coca-cola light) and the fries were literally inside the sandwich! Lunch hit the spot regardless of the odd circumstances surrounding our service.

We left Aix and hit the road for Cassis... Mitch was driving and we found it extremely difficult to navigate through Marseille. Numerous arguments followed but eventually we made it to the tiny seashore town of Cassis, due east of Marseille.

We found our hotel, Le Jardin D'Emile, checked in, caught a bit of an old episode of Melrose Place in French and then ventured into town. We walked across the street to the ocean and watched the water crash against the rocks. It was beautiful and so serene just to sit there and enjoy the waves. There were a few brave swimmers on the rocky beach but the water seemed a bit cold and rough to me. We eventually left the water and settled into a cafe along the dock and just chilled out for the first time since we got to France!

We started chatting with our server at the cafe and asked him which of the many restaurants along the water is the best. He told us we couldn't go wrong at Nino so we walked over and made a reservation for the evening.

As usual, we were one of the first dining patrons to arrive at 8 o'clock sharp and were greeted warmly by the staff. We giggled over the fact that our waiter looked a lot like Furio from the Sopranos and at the silly sailor-boy attire the waitstaff had to wear. I get the whole seaside theme, but c'mon!

Dinner started with an apertif of kir royale (cassis w/champagne) and we shared an order of mussels with pistou for an appetizer. The mussels were outstanding! You can tell they were fresh, the texture was just right - not too chewy, not too mushy and the flavor of the pistou was the perfect buttery herbal combination of ingredients.

Determined not to leave southern France without sampling some bouillabaisse, RRR & I both ordered the house specialty and the three of us shared a bottle of 2005 Domaine de Bagnol, a rose' from Cassis. RRR broke her 'give me red until I'm dead' rule and even had a few glasses! This is a breakthrough!

When our bouillabaisse arrived, the waitress and Furio were more than happy to explain how to put the fish in the broth, identified each fish which they then deboned for us tableside, and continued to replenish the broth as we slurped it up.

The broth was tasty, the fish fresh, but again, the standout item was the mussels appetizer. What really made this meal was the jovial service. This restaurant sells itself as a family establishment and they really go the extra mile to make sure everyone is comfortable without being patronizing.

The three of us were so relaxed and finally able to take a breath and enjoy our surroundings. Of course, our peace would be temporary -- the challenge of navigating our way back to Marseille and returning our rental car with time to catch a 9am high speed train to Paris was looming.....