One Of France's Most Beautiful Beaches Is A Remote Mediterranean Cove Worth Hiking For

A stretch of France's southern coastline has some of the most striking landscapes shaped by towering cliffs jutting into the sea, where you feel worlds away from the boulevards of Paris or countryside chateaus. This type of landscape has a suitably French name — a calanque, which is a term for a phenomenon where limestone cliffs fold around a narrow inlet of the Mediterranean. Many of these fjord-like calanques are contained within Calanques National Park, neighboring Marseille. The calanques here often have beaches nestled in the hinge of the cliffs, where the water ends in a slender crescent. You can find a few that are easily reached within the park by road or a short hike, but the calanque with the most impressive scenery and a calmer beach requires a longer trek: the Calanque d'En-Vau.

Far from any roads, getting to the Calanque d'En-Vau will tire you out, though the prize of its secluded beach is enough to keep you motivated. The calanque can only be reached by boat or by foot, demanding an hour-and-a-half (or longer) hike. It has a small pebble beach flanked by cliffs that top out at 700 meters (almost 3000 feet), according to the Marseille Tourist Office, making it look more like a beach at the bottom of a canyon than in a seaside cove. Its waters are crystalline blue, owing to aquatic plants that blanket the seabed. And though the beach can get crowded in peak summer season, it's not as busy as some of the more accessible calanque beaches. Plus, along with the rest of the Calanques National Park, it's free.

For some, the sweaty hike to the Calanque d'En-Vau may just be a means to reach the beach. But trekkers will find that the hike is a reward in itself, winding through some lush stretches along the mountainside and affording wonderful lookouts. The more scenic hiking option heads out from Cassis, an underrated beach town on the French Riviera. The trail is just over 4 miles out-and-back, but with very steep sections that amount to over 1,000 feet of elevation gain. It begins at the Calanque Port-Miou, which you can walk or drive to from Cassis (there's a parking lot available).

After passing Port-Miou, you'll follow a dirt path that ascends a limestone bluff. The trail then leads to Calanque de Port-Pin, another cove you might rest at on the way to En-Vau. Its limestone cradle is lower and doesn't open out to the sea, but it's a pretty spot, too, that feels somewhat tucked in by the bluffs. Passing Port-Pin, the trail then makes its most dramatic upward climb, where you'll get great views over the sea and rock formations that make the Calanques one of the most stunning national parks in Europe. The descent from here to En-Vau is very steep, with portions even assisted by iron rails. After this descent, it's a short, flat walk further to the beach.

The south coast of France gets hot in the summer, to the point that the calanques might be closed due to fire risk. Even risk-free, there are no places to fill up water on the trail and no facilities at the beach, so bring plenty of hydrating fluids. To reach Cassis and the trailhead to the calanque, it's about a 20-minute train ride from Marseille, France's oldest and second-largest city.