The Mistral had been blowing non-stop for the last two weeks. We were up at dawn and going to bed very late after full-day downwinder sessions around the fishing village of Carro, shooting for the 2016 Fanatic catalogue. It was felt the team had earned a bit of time to relax, so together with Alice Arutkin, Kirsty Jones, Maria Andres and Klaas Voget, a sneaky getaway to the Calanques, or ‘inlets’, was planned. We packed an inflatable each, bought a 10 Euro train ticket out of town and were underway.
So here we are, the four of us at dawn with our big backpacks at the La Couronne station, on our way to Marseille. It’s 7.00 am and Alice always has a bit of a hard start to the day. She is astonished to discover that her bag weighs as per its contents suggest: a SUP, a paddle etc…and that she actually has to carry it! Maria, being the good Spaniard that she is, went to bed late and does not quite understand why one would start so early to catch a train to go paddling. Our first stop is at the station of Carry le Rouet to visit the national reserve beach of Cap Rousset. I had planned a few stops on the way and the SNCF, the French railway company, gave us the chance to finish the day at Ensuès la Redonnes where a dinghy (also inflatable!) was waiting for us. When discovering the beach of Cap Rousset, both girls’ faces brightened up with a huge smile and they ran to inflate their boards and hit the water. Jean, our local photographer, knows the coast like the back of his hand, and he also knows that with a bit of bread the fish are going to come and play around our boards. In a short moment, the girls are literally attacked by a school of sea bream teeming in front of the lens. You would think we were in the Maldives.
