Luminy (Marseille): Les Calanques, Autour de la Grande Candelle.

Calanque de Sugiton

This walk combines a low altitude trail along the sea (between 10 and 100 meters above sea level) with a high altitude trail for the return trip (around 300 meters), and with stunning views all along, especially of the Calanque de Sugiton. The only snag is that the trail combining the two trails have a rather difficult passage with a number of chains and iron fixings for your support. In any case, this is not a walk for anyone with vertigo problems. You should also be aware of the fact that the low altitude trail (red 6 trail) passed la Grande Candelle has a risk of falling rocks from above.

In addition, this area is normally closed to the public from 1st July till 15th September (except for morning walks till 11 am) because of the risk of forest fires. But call 0811 201313 for exact information.

The walk starts off on the low altitude trail going east from Luminy with good contact with the sea. If the difficult passage proves too difficult, it is only to turn around and enjoy some of the small trails down towards the sea (you could get all the way down in places, especially around ”le Tonneau”). It would still be a very nice walk. You could also visit Calanque de Sugiton for a swim on the way back.

Below Grande Candelle

Park the car in the large car park outside the University of Liminy and take the main forest road going straight south (yellow 6a on the map). After about 20-25 minutes walk you are at a big junction with a Citerne (water reservoir) at the 215 meter point. Here you take slightly to the left, following the trail marked GR, yellow and green 6. After another 20 minutes, the red 6 trail joins the forest road and after only another 50 meters, you take right along the continuation of this red 6 trail going east along the ”Falaise des Toits”.

On the 139 meter point, after only another 10 minutes walk (about 50 minutes from the car) you have a very nice view point down on your right with a few shady pine trees (marked on the map with a black spot). If your walk started late in the morning, this would be an ideal spot for lunch. The alternatives for lunch are after another 15 minutes (a smaller view point) or after 30 minutes (the point where the trail turns north, just before the difficult passage).

When you pass just above the large rock in the sea called ”le Tonneau”, you will notice small trails going down towards the sea. This could also be worth exploring  with lunch in mind. On this side of ”le Tonneau”, there is another big rock in the sea nearer land that seems to be popular among some to jump onto.

After the last ”beach” (about 1.5 hours from the car excluding breaks, the path goes steeply uphill and turns north in order to join the GR trail back to Luminy. After only 10 minutes you meet the difficult passage (marked with a red triangle on the map). But with good help of a number of different chains and metal fixings in the steep mountain side, I had no problems getting up (or down), but I see that many people have problems, so I have classified this walk as difficult for this reason.

Because of the the steep climb from almost 0 meters to about 350 meters where you meet the GR trail, you need to recon on a good 30 minutes before you see the GR signs. You could explore one of the short cuts indicated on the map (I have not tried them), but you will eventually be on Col de la Candelle, just behind la Grande Candella.

Continue along the GR trail (and yellow and green 6) westwards. You are high up with fantastic views, so take your time. When you are about straight above “le Torpilleur” in Calanque de Sugiton, the trail turns sharply downwards, and it descends fairly steeply about 60 meters. When the trail levels off again, you will very soon see a large cairn and a sign for a different walk down to the left (back eastwards). But you continue the yellow 6 and 6a all the way back to Luminy.

Basic information:

Duration:        6h (including 1.5h for lunch)

Distance:       11 km.

Ascent:          560 m (accumulated)

Difficulty:        Difficult

Start/finish:    Luminy (Parking at the University)

Map:              IGN Les Calanques de Marseille á Cassis (1cm=150 m)

GPX-file:       Luminy3 (link to free download fromlist)

VisoRando Lien.

Pour le fichier GPX, vous pouvez télécharger à partir d'ici (voir ci-dessus) ou mettre à jour via ce lien VisoRando où vous pourrez également voir l'itinéraire sur une bonne carte:

https://www.visorando.com/randonnee-/3136042

For the GPX-file, you could download from here (see just above) or go to this VisoRando link where you also will see the route on a good map.

If you have problems with this VisoRando link, download the GPX-file from above and import it to VisoRando or other application.

Luminy (Marseille): Les Calanques, Crete and Cap Morgiou and Morgiou village.

Morgiou Plage

Calananques de Morgiou et Sugiton

This walk is perhaps the best introduction to the Calanques you can make in one day. Essentially, you follow several mountain ridges (cretes) all the way from Luminy to Cap Morgiou with fantastic views of Marseille city in the beginning; thereafter the sea with all its islands and finally the Calanques themselves, Morgiou, Sugiton, St.-Jean de Dieu, Devenson etc. with the massive wall of la Grande Candelle in the background. You finish the walk by returning down to the old fishing village of Morgiou where you have a nice bar/restaurant and some small beaches.

The area is normally closed to the public from 1st July till 15th September (except for morning walks till 11 am) because of the risk of forest fires. But call 0811 201313 for exact information.

Drive down to Cassis and take the main road towards Marseille (D 559). At the round-about just after the plateau, take left for Luminy (University of Marseille) and park as far in as you can get on the large car park. The walk starts here going straight south on the main dirt road that passes the forest police check-point.

As you can see on the map, the dotted yellow 6a trail is the only trail marked from the car park, but it could be difficult to find the yellow dots. The easiest is to follow this road to the large intersection with GR 51 & 98 (about 20 minutes) and here take the GR sharply to the right (westwards). After only some 750 meters, you have a large intersection, and here we prefer to take the yellow markings (yellow 6) that takes off on a trail to the left of the road. This will give you a ridge with a fine view of the University and later Marseille city. If you want a bit more “remote” trail, take the green marking (green 6). The two routes will join up at the 198 meter point further up.

Keep following the yellow 6 trail to the 213 meter point (about 1h). Here you cross the little road that you could use to drive down to Morgiou out of season (closed for normal traffic July-September). You keep following the yellow 6 trail, but at the large intersection only some 350 meters further on, you continue straight on the blue 1 trail for Cap Morgiou (do not turn right down into the valley).

You will now follow Crete de Morgiou all the way out to the tip of Cap Morgiou. On the way you will pass the return trail to Morgiou (Black 4 trail) on the 85 meter point (2h 15min). Enjoy the views in all directions! From here it’s only 20 minutes down to Cap Morgiou, where you can find some shelter from the wind and the sun.

You return to Morgiou by the same trail up to the 85 meter point and simply turn right down the black 4 trail to Morgiou (about 1h from Cap Morgiou). Here you could start with a swim at the local beach (If it’s full, continue along the sea front around the property that is just after the beach, where there is yet another small beach.) You might also like a coffee or a drink in the local bar/restaurant (tel. 04-9140-0637 for opening hours). They also serve lunches (somewhat pricy and no credit cards accepted, but with such a location …) and in particular they normally have a good selection of to-days catch of fish.

The return walk to Luminy will take you about one hour and I suggest the easy route (without ladder/rope). From the Bar in the village, follow the main road back up for about 15 minutes. Here you have a track road taking off to the left (with a barrier), but you want the yellow 7 trail taking right at the same point (it’s really the red 6 trail for the first 40 meters). Just follow the yellow 7 trail till it meets up with the yellow spotted 6a trail (also an alternative return route, but with one tricky point to watch out for). Go on up to the GR-trail and back to Luminy the way you came this morning (1h).



Walk variation - Our new favourite walk in the Calanques.

Park at the new main parking next to the Business School. (Approaching Luminy - take right in the last round-about before Luminy and simply follow P-signs from here. Much easier parking en plus!) From here you get to Col de Morgiou 20 minutes faster and we found that from here we could combine the 2 walks described on this blog in a 4 hours effective walk (Crete and Cape Morgiou AND Calanques de Morgiou AND Sugiton). This "refinement" makes this our prefered walk in the Calanques. From the end of the parking, take the Blue 7 path marked for Morgiou, and you will be on Col de Morgiou in 40 minutes (use your map). Another 30 minutes and you have "le Carrefour" where the Red 5 crosses. Another 30 minutes and you see down to to the carrefour where the Black 4 starts back in to Morgiou. (You need, however approx. 20 minutes to get down this steep end of the ridge on lots of rolling stones, so if this concerns you, take the Red 5 back down to Morgiou.)

The Black 4 will take you about 30 minutes to Morgiou and from here you follow the coast all the way around to Calanque de Sugiton on Red 6 path - total approx. 45 minutes.

The next strech of coastal path has 2 difficult passages; one steep rock climbing and a descent on a fixed ladder. From Morgiou Village, however, you could return directly to Luminy in about 1 hour. For the direct return to Luminy, you have an easy route and a more difficult route (more scenic). For the easy route, follow the road north-west from the Village about 1km and turn right here onto the path7 for Luminy. For the more interesting walk, start off from the Village on the red 6 for Sugiton, but very soon after the first beach you take sharp left on the 6a path (the intersection is almost at the highest point). 

From Calanque de Sugiton you have a good 30 minutes climb up towards Luminy before you reach the Citerne at 215 meters. From here it will take about 35 minutes back to the car, provided to find the narrow pathway between the "old" parking and where the car is parked. Just ask for the path for the Business School.

Basic information:

Duration:       4.5h (+ 2h lunch and swimming)

Distance:       13 km.

Ascent:          500 m (accumulated)

Difficulty:       Moderate

Map:              IGN Les Calanques de Marseille á Cassis (1cm=150 m)
GPX-file:        Luminy2.gpx    (Click for free download from list)

VisoRando Lien:

Pour le fichier GPX, vous pouvez télécharger à partir d'ici (voir ci-dessus) ou mettre à jour via ce lien VisoRando où vous pourrez également voir l'itinéraire sur une bonne carte.

For the GPX-file, you could download from here (see just above) or update through this VisoRando link where you also will see the route on a good map.

https://www.visorando.com/randonnee-/2097498



TET:
June 2019   Bjorn

Luminy (Marseille): Les Calanques, Calanques de Morgiou and Sugiton.

This is our “classic” walk in these parts of the Calanques. The GR used to go here along the coast, but it’s now taken furher inland. This could be because the coastal hike has 3 hard parts marked on the map, but they are really not much for an average fit person (involves chains and ladders). The walk will however be vertiginous for some people, and is not recommened for people that has problems with steep hights (vertigo).

The area is normally closed to the public from 1st July till 15th September (except for morning walks till 11 am) because of the risk of forest fires. But call 0811 201313 for exact information.

This is just a 3 hours hike, but really nice when it’s hot and you can spend more time on the beaches at Morgiou and Sugiton. But for the rest of the year, I have described an optional walk (see bottom page) that together with the main walk will make this walk one of the finest walks in the Calanques. But it’s a bit tough going (up and down), and it’s not recommended on warm days. It will take almost another 3 hours, making it a 7 hours walk including 1 hour for lunch. But you could cut down the walk by about ¾ hour by not doing the last bit towards Cap Morgiou.

Drive down to Cassis and take the main road towards Marseille (D 559). At the round-about just after the plateau, take left for Luminy (University of Marseille) and park as far in as you can get on the large car park. The walk starts here going straight south on the main dirt road passed the police check-point.

As you can see on the map, the dotted yellow 6a trail is the only trail marked from the car park, but it could be difficult to find the yellow dots. The easiest is to follow this road to the large intersection with GR 51 & 98 (about 20 minutes) and here take the GR sharply to the right and walk back along the GR till you see where the dotted yellow 6a starts off to the left, clearly marked for Morgiou. Follow the 6a till you meet the red 6 trail and take this back down to the local beach in Morgiou, where you could take the first swim of the day or visit the local bar/restaurant even further back. You could walk here from the car in about 1 hour.


Now, you follow the red 6 trail around Cap Sugiton and it takes about 45 minutes to get down to the first beach in Calaques de Sugiton. It could be worth using 15 more minutes to walk up and around the path that leads to the other side of Sugiton, just inside of the Torpilleur. Here you could swim from the large rocks.

Back again, take the path going straight up to the 139 meter point, where the fire road ends. Just follow the fire road upwards, taking the short cuts you feel confortable with. The way back to the car will take about an hour from the beach.

For a more challening return to Luminy, try to follow the coast line from Sugiton for about 15 minutes to the east. You walk around the corner just inside of "le Torpilleur" and continue along the beach situated here (nudists have occupied this beach for many years now, so do show respect when passing by). After about 10-15 minutes, when the coast "turns" right and changes direction, you soon see "Luminy" writen on a stone near the water with an arrow marked upwards to the left. From here, there is a small marked path (big red markings) taking you very steeply upwards towards the large trail you see on the map as red 6. But first, your local red trail takes you up to a very nice "balcony" overlooking Sugiton and the Sea. From this balcony follow the trail a bit further upwards and you soon join the red 6 trail, which will join up with the GR51 and GR98 going west. At the 215 meter point, you join up with the direct path up from Sugiton, and now just follow the large forest road back to Luminy. 

If you do not find the red marked trail going up from the beach just after Sugiton, you need to go back to Sugiton and take the ordinary return to Luminy. There are other paths up from the beach to the red 6 trail a bit further along the shore line, but I cannot recommend any of these, and some of them are for certain dangereous! 

Basic information:

Duration:      3h (Optional: + 3h lunch and swimming)
Distance:     8.5 km.
Ascent:        350 m (accumulated)
Difficulty:      Moderate (Some steep cliffs and ladders/chains)
Start/finish:  Luminy (University of Marseille)
Map:            IGN Les Calanques de Marseille á Cassis (1cm=150 m)

GPX-file:      Luminy1 (link to free download fromlist)

VisoRando Lien.

Pour le fichier GPX, vous pouvez télécharger à partir d'ici (voir ci-dessus) ou mettre à jour via ce lien VisoRando où vous pourrez également voir l'itinéraire sur une bonne carte:

https://www.visorando.com/randonnee-/3136159

For the GPX-file, you could download from here (see just above) or go to this VisoRando link where you also will see the route on a good map.

If you have problems with this VisoRando link, download the GPX-file from above and import it to VisoRando or other application.

Optional Walk: Morgiou – Cap Morgiou – Morgiou

If you decide to take this optional walk, it could be worth deciding before leaving Luminy. Instead of taking the yellow 6a trail (with a tricky decent), it would be faster to take the yellow 7 trail straight down to the road for Morgiou. When you hit the road at the 23 meter point, continue 500 meters down the road towards Morgiou (you might well want a swim before you start also!) and you see on right side a small trail marked red 5, taking off up from a car park just before the road splits.

The walk starts with a steep climb on the red No. 5 trail up from Morgiou to “le Carrefour” on the Crete de Morgiou (about 230 meters above sea-level with fantastic views in all directions). At the Carrefour, you take left along the blue 1 trail that takes you all the way down to Cap Morgiou with stunning views all the way.

At the intersection on the 85 meter point, your return trail to Morgiou takes off down the hill (black 4 trail). From here it takes about 20 minutes on to Cap Morgiou (one way) and about 25 minutes back to Morgiou. So, if you want to cut down the walk by about ¾ hours, you could return straight to Morgiou.

Optional Walk used for TET Group walks in winter

Head straight south to Col de Morgiou (use GPS-devise and the link below to VisoRando) and continue straight south along Crete de Morgiou. After approx. 1h15min from the Col, you get to the Second Carrefour (bas) where you turn left down the black marked path to walk back in to Morgiou Village. Thereafter you follow the coastal path (difficulties in places) to Calanque de Sugiton, where at the end you climb up to the highest point and follow the only path there (marked with 3 red dots) along the cliffs up to where the forest road starts. From here you take the main road back to Luminy. Use the GPS to be sure you find the right way back to the car.

VisoRando link with good map:  https://www.visorando.com/randonnee-/17719639

First time with TET 28/2/2022 with 14. Success.
Left the car at 10.00 (left Pertuis 8h15 on a Monday, but delayed and 15min traffic jam. Use Friday for the coast!)
Col de Morgiou: 10h40 - 10h45
Carrefour haut: 11h15
Carrefour bas: 11h55 - 12h05
Morgiou Beach: 12h40 - 13h40 (Lunch)
Sugiton: 14h35 - 15h05 (walked around following the falaise to where the road started)
Parking: 16h15