You might not associate the building of 300,000-tonne oil and gas tankers with the pleasures of a Mediterranean resort. But it is one of the surprising charms of LA CIOTAT that the Vieux Port, below a golden stone old town, shelters the dramatic massive cranes and derricks of the former shipyards as well as the fishing fleet and the odd yacht or two. La Ciotat is not a town for museum or monument seeing. It's a relaxing place with excellent beaches to loaf on and little glamour glitter.In 1895, August and Louis Lumière filmed the first ever moving pictures here, including the arrival of a train at the gare SNCF, which had Parisians jumping out of their seats in fright when it was premiered there. the town celebrates its relatively unknown status as the cradle of cinema with an annual film festival (in mid-June) using the world's oldest movie house, the Eden Cinema, on the corner of boulevard A.-France and boulevard Jean-Jaurès. The brothers are commemorated by a solid 1950s monument on plage Lumière – named after them – and in a mural on the covered market halls that house the modern cinema, visible as you walk up rue Regnier from boulevard Guérin north of the port. The streets of the old town, apart from rue Poilus, are uneventful and a bit run-down. If you feel the need to do something constructive you can take a boat trip out to the tiny offshore Île Verte from the quai de Gaulle (departures every hour; journey time 15min; tel 04.42.83.11.44; €5.50), and to a number of nearby calanques from quai Ganteaume (tel 06.09.35.25.68). Alternatively, take a walk through the Parc du Mugel (daily: June–Sept 8am–8pm; Oct–May 9am–6pm; free; bus #3 to La Garde, stop "Mugel"), with its strange cluster of rock formations on the promontory beyond the shipyards. A path leads up through overgrown vegetation to a narrow terrace overlooking the sea. If you continue on bus #3 to Figuerolles you can reach the Anse de Figuerolles calanque down the avenue of the same name, and its neighbour, the Gameau.
Pages in section ‘La Ciotat’: Practicalities.
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