La Ciotat
On my June trip to France, I wanted to check out La Ciotat, a seaside town southeast of Marseille. We rented a car and made the two-hour drive from Nice. Arriving in La Ciotat, my initial impression was very good — a cute harbor with an old town and lots of pedestrian-only streets — just the sort of place that interests me.
We stayed on one of those pedestrian-only streets, so the car went into a garage for two nights. We spent most of our time wandering the streets of the old town, just enjoying getting to know the town. There’s a large shipyard in La Ciotat, and in some ways that dominates the small harbor. The inner harbor area is full of boats, including many which appear to be vintage. The harbor is ringed by the town, with cafes and restaurants looking out over the water.
This area is also near the Calanques National Park, a dramatic series of steep, rocky limestone coves and narrow valleys stretching 20 kilometers between Marseille and La Ciotat.
I brought my medium-format film camera, a Fuji GA645zi, with me on this trip. I particularly wanted to shoot some Kodak Ektar film, which tends to produce more saturated colors than the Kodak Gold I often use. I shot this photo below with that camera and film combination:
I enjoyed my time in La Ciotat, and I’ll have more photos of boats from La Ciotat to share in future posts.
