It is assumed that the Tourist Office at the Place de la Tasse is the starting point for the walk. The Musée Ciotaden is just across the road in the rather grand building with the octagonal corner tower. If you happen to visit on Sunday morning you will find the harbourside crowded with market stalls and abuzz with crowds of people. This gives the place an almost timeless atmosphere, only the range of products on sale betraying the actual date on the calendar. Make your way around the harbour to the point at which the Rue Bouronne joins Quai François Mitterrand and look back across the harbour.

A map of the complete walk can be found at La Ciotat master map.

This is an approximate location for Le Port, La Ciotat (1) by Joseph Loubon (Musée de la Marine, Marseille). The church of Notre-Dame still dominates the scene on the left, skirted about with quayside buildings which may have changed since Loubon captured the view in 1844, but they continue to give the Vieux Port its essential character. The tall tower which was part of the fortifications at the entrance to the harbour has gone but there is still a lighthouse at the end of Mole Berouard as in the painting. The real change is to be seen in the vessels in the harbour – a myriad of pleasure craft sit above their reflections in the placid water and massive super-yachts and the cranes and buildings associated with their construction dominate the right side of the picture.

Now walk on a little further towards the end of the harbour and you come to the approximate location that is captured in a work by Georges Braque – Le Port de La Ciotat, 1907 (2) (Private collection). A collection of small craft painted in rainbow colours casting their inky shadows on the sunlit quayside was a favourite subject for the artist and in this work he also includes two large steamers in the background referencing the towns shipbuilding tradition. The scale of the port buildings has changed dramatically but the profile of the distant hills is still recogniseable. This is slightly more naturalistic in style than some of his other paintings but still displays a flat, decorative quality and use of non-descriptive colour that characterises the work of the Fauves.

We are now going to walk out of the town centre to the calanques of Mugel and Figuerolles.
The Quai François Mitterrand continues into Avenue Victor Giraud and you will see the police station on the left. Cross the road junction and continue along Avenue Victor Giraud with the port buildings (some derelict) on the left. The road bears round to the left and a T-junction is reached at which you should turn left down Avenue des Calanques with the port complex still on the left.

The road bears to the right and you will see a car park on the right. Before continuing down to Calanque du Mugel take the narrow road on the left called Avenue du Matelad. This turns into a footpath and brings you down to the water’s edge at Pointe de Matelad with a view across to the bay.

This is only a fifteen minute walk from the hustle and bustle of the old port past the slightly depressing shipbuilding estate much of which is in a state of dereliction but it is a world away. The pretty little bay with its azure waters is backed by relatively undeveloped landscape and it may have been from this rocky outcrop that Othon Friesz painted Paysage de La Ciotat in 1907 (3) (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy – dépôt du MNAM, Centre Pompidou). The distinctive profile of the rounded hills in the background must surely be those that rise up behind the botanic gardens. This is a playful, almost abstract work of colourful arabesques perhaps echoing the organic curves and shapes of Art Nouveau that was much in vogue at the time.

Now retrace your steps to Avenue des Calanques and continue to the next T-junction where you turn left and after a few steps you arrive at Anse du Grand Mugel. If you need refreshment this can be found at Restaurant Le Mugel on the beach. A short walk further on is the Anse du Petit Mugel. The botanic gardens are well worth a diversion and within the grounds there is a terrace that overlooks the bay and this could be the spot from where Georges Braque painted Petite Baie de La Ciotat, 1907 (4) (Centre Pompidou, Paris). There are obvious similarities with the previous work by Friesz and it is no surprise that the two artists were working together and sharing ideas. The dominant component on the left of the picture is the arcing tree branch and foliage – it would now be the sheds of the shipyard.

The walk now takes us to the second inlet that provided Braque and Friesz with a truly exotic subject to stimulate their creative imaginations – La Calaque de Figuerolles. Retrace your steps to the end of the bay and take the Calanque du Mugel uphill but carry on into Avenue du Mugel, do not turn right into Avenue des Calanques (the way you came). Carry on down this pleasant, quiet road, passing the Impasse du Mugel on the left and the primary school on the right. At the cross-roads carry straight on until the Avenue Figuerolles is reached and turn left. Follow this road for a short distance and you will come to a small car park on the left and you will see a footpath on the right and this will take you down to the cove.

Before taking the steps down to left walk a short distance along the service road round to the right and you will come to the spot where Braque took his view in La Ciotat, 1907 (5) (Centre Pompidou, Paris). The terracotta tiled roof in the centre of the picture is still there and although the snack bar and restaurant have been extended the scene is instantly recogniseable. The rock formations are like something from an alien planet but in this picture the artist chose not to emphasise them and instead gives us a more conventional landscape, albeit a vibrant and colourful one.

This small inlet with its fantastical sculpted cliffs and exotic vegetation features in many paintings by the two artists and it is not difficult to imagine them standing side by side, their imaginations running ‘wild’, inspired by the scene before them. In one picture by Friesz topographical accuracy has certainly been sacrificed for artistic reasons and that is reflected in some confusion in the title. Calanque du Mugel à La Ciotat (La Calanque de Figuerolles à La Ciotat?) 1907 (6) (Fondation Regards de Provence, Marseille). He has certainly taken liberties with the vista, but on balance it must be this cove that provided the original motif. Sinuous curves, delicious pastel colours and a beautifully balanced compostion are what matters here, not an accurate record of the view.

Now walk back to the top of the steps where there is a small seating area overlooking the bay and this is the place where Braque positioned himself to paint La Calanque, temps gris, 1907 (7) (Neue Pinakothek, Munich). The tiled roof of the café is still there in the foreground but inevitably the eye is drawn to the weird rock formation sculpted by erosion into a shape that is undeniably like an eagle’s head. This looming presence has an almost sinister quality but that is not what is conveyed by the artist’s image which is an exuberant celebration of colour and form.

It is interesting to compare Braque’s interpretation of the scene with that of Friesz in Paysage à La Ciotat (La Pointe du Capucin), 1907 (8) (Musée d’Art Moderne, Troyes, France). The viewpoint is almost identical but the artist pushes his vision further towards abstraction with wilder colours and more expressive brushstrokes that take on an almost calligraphic quality.

We will complete our visit to Figuerolles by walking down to the beach where Jozef Pankiewicz captured the scene in a much more conventional way in La Ciotat, Provence (9) (Private collection). He has chosen not to feature the ‘Eagle’s Beak’ – maybe that would have been too much of a distraction in this subdued evocation of a Provencal coastline.

At this point it is possible to conclude the walk and our look at the very different ways that artists have responded to this intriguing landscape. However a further stroll of about twenty minutes will bring us to a spot offering a different and equally dramatic view of this unique coastline. Retrace your steps to Avenue Figuerolles and proceed as if returning to the town centre, passing the point where Avenue du Mugel joins the road. A little further on turn left into Chemin Notre-Dame de la Garde and walk uphill. Ignore roads to right and left and you will see a modern housing development up on the hillside to the left. This is the Résidence Notre-Dame de la Garde and it takes it name from the small chapel that lies just beyond and that is our destination. Turn left into Traverse Notre-Dame de la Garde. This road soon turns into a footpath skirting the housing estate and eventually brings you out at Chapelle Notre-Dame de la Garde. Please note that there is a much shorter route to this point via a coastal footpath which is shown on the master map but the author has not walked this route and so cannot recommend it.

It was probably along this path that Othon Friesz stood to take in the view that forms the basis for Paysage (Le Bec de l’Aigle, La Ciotat), 1907 (10) (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA). Another celebration of vibrant colour and expressive line that gives the work of this artist its unmistakable identity at this stage of his career. These paintings are definitely subjective responses to the landscape, not objective records of it.

From the terrace at the side of the chapel there is a stunning view of the jagged cliffs sculpted into weird shapes by the effects of wind and rain over millenia. This is the scene captured by Roger Fry in La Ciotat near Marseilles, 1923 (11) (Private collection). Unlike the works by Braque and Friesz, this powerfully dramatic painting contains specific features that can still be identified and places where further erosion of the cliffs have had an effect can be seen. In its way it is no less of an evocation of this strange and beautiful landscape that once seen is never forgotten.