L'Estaque

This past Sunday we visited a neighborhood of Marseille called L'Estaque. It's on the opposite side of town from us, but still on the sea. Without a car we had to take 3 buses to get there, but fortunately the kids love the bus! L'Estaque is well known in the art world as one of the most important places of modern painting. Cezanne was its most famous resident, living there between 1870 and 1882. While many other impressionist painters lived in L'Estaque at some point, it was Georges Braque who gave birth to the cubism movement while living and painting in L'Estaque. Okay - sorry to bore you with a brief art history lesson....

Visiting L'Estaque you can see the draw for the artists. The mountains, the sea, the port full of boats...

The day we visited was a festival, and we wandered around the many arts and crafts, then got to take a free boat ride along the coast. There was also a tournament for the ancient Provencal sport called "Joute Nautique." Basically there are two boats, and the "player" stands on the top, back end of the boat and holds a very long stick (see photo above). As the two boats approach each other, the two players raise theit sticks and once they are withing reaching distance - they try to knock the other one off and into the water! The one left dry and one the boat wins. It's fun to watch!

L'Estaque is also famous for a special treat called a Chichis Fregis. It's basically a long, cresent shaped doughnut with a hint of lemon in the dough. It's either sprinkled with sugar or coated with chocolate. We opted for the sugar - it was divine!

We decided to do the Sunday afternoon sit and eat lunch for 2 hours bit- so we found a great cafe along the waterfront. As an appetizer I tried the local fish soup, which is served with breath-killing garlic sauce. It was absolutely fantastic! Alana, always being one to try new foods, tasted it and loved it. I let her finish it up. We also ate huge prawns, salt cod with aioli, warm goat cheese salad, chocolate mousse, flan, and a nice carafe of wine...Paul and I are still full days later...