UKC

I have heard that the Marseilles area is particularly bad for car crime. Should I avoid the area?

In reply to Rog Wilko:

A friend's report put me off going and I went to Buis-les-Baronnies instead. She claimed that standard practice in some of the unguarded car parks is simply to leave all doors unlocked and windows open.

That said, if you aren't camping and can leave valuables in accomodation, she did speak highly of the climbing and setting.

Hope this helps.

L

In reply to LukeO: Yes, I rather expected a response of this type! Unfortunately we'll be in our camper van - hence my concern.

In reply to Rog Wilko:

The obvious place to park is the University campus at Luminy, that has always struck me as far and away the safest place to park. That gets you at all the central chunk fairly easily. Great area!

Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Absolutely Chris, that's what we do.

In reply to Chris Craggs: Good tip, Chris, thanks.

In reply to Rog Wilko:

Cassis always seemed a pretty safe place to park to me, as a real tourist-town.

You can walk in to D'en Vau and a couple of others from Cassis, or there's a very handy boat option from there (to D'en Vau certainly, not sure about others) in peak season.

There's also an area (I forget the name) on the promontory due S of Marseille the we went to - seemed a pretty quiet little village to park in.

My impression is that the parking for the central calanques is the dodgiest. Of course i may have been kidding myself...

In reply to Rog Wilko:

Roger

Hope you are well. We went to En Vau the other week and parked at the Col de la Gardiole, easy walk in but a b<>ger of a walk out; Tip, finish on one of the long routes like Le Saphir and follow the trail over the plateau back to the carpark.
There seemed to be no problem with the car park and no more evidence of break ins (glass) than most Peak car parks. Another tip, if you climb on the La Calanque side of En Vau be very careful on the descent route, it isn't obvious resulting in us having a long wait at the car park for our B team. Bolts can be spaced, it is worth taking a light rack even when the rockfax does not indicate this. Enjoy!

In reply to Trevor Langhorne: Thanks Trevor, sounds like good advice. Yes, we're both well, thanks (but a bit slower every day!). Hope you had better weather in S France than we did this time last year - two nice days then fewer than 10 routes climbed in the next 3 weeks!

In reply to Rog Wilko:
Roger
Weather was good, climbed 8 days out of 9, can't manage every day these days!
Trevor

In reply to tlanghorne:
can't manage every day these days!

Me neither!