niolon, a village inside an inhabited calanque
A handful of cabanons between cliff and water, a fishing harbour, no hotel. Niolon takes some earning, and keeps to itself.
fishermen's cabanons turned family houses
Niolon belongs to the commune of Le Rove, on the Côte Bleue. The village grew around its harbour: fishing cabanons handed down and restored from one generation to the next. Marseille locals have always come up here for the clear water and the quiet. The railway viaduct spans the calanque; the lanes run down to the sea.
the calanque and the swimming
There is no sandy beach in Niolon: you swim from the harbour rocks, in clear water over a pebbly bed, facing the Frioul islands. The Vesse calanque, a 5-minute walk away, adds two small pebble beaches. In the morning, before 10, you are often alone.
village life
A grocery that takes bread orders, two restaurants above the water, an ice-cream shop, a bar, a pétanque ground facing the bay. The diving centre occupies the fort. That is all, and that is the value of the place: the calanque lives by day and falls quiet again at night.
where to stay in niolon?
Niolon has no hotel, and rentals here can be counted on one hand. Calanca is one of the only whole houses to rent in the village: 3 bedrooms, 2 south-facing terraces, the sea a 5-minute walk away.