Toulon, France

Friday April 15

We left Toulon this morning traveling through the  lovely Provence countryside to a fishing village called Cassis.  While most of you were sleeping, we were tasting wine....at 10:30 am.  We have decided we quite like wine in the morning.  We did purchase a very nice dry rosée.  After the tasting, we had 30 minutes on our own to visit the village.  Here was another wonderful market selling all different types of food...meat, baked goods, candies, and more.  We noticed that the bakers were selling bread by the slice.  For instance, if you wanted a slice 4 inches thick, that is what they would cut from a loaf of bread.  That is so unique.  Next we embarked on a small tour boat which took us on a bumpy ride to visit Calanques National Park.  Calanques are magnificent canyon-like inlets, geological marvels of southern France.  Beneath the towering rock formations lie caves once inhabited by Neolithic man.  These caves are now only accessible to divers. This is a wonderful area for hikers, climbers and boaters.  After enjoying our ride back through the countryside, we walked around Toulon for a while.  We found a huge mall which seemed quite unobtrusive from the outside.  We walked around the dock area with its many shops and restaurants where, lo and behold, we found a geocache!

When we returned to the ship, we had a tour of the ship's galley.  Interesting to say the least.  All food is prepared fresh daily.  Everything comes out of the same galley for all restaurants.

Lobster Thermidore was on the menu tonight and grand mariner soufflé for dessert.