Saint-Tropez

We've been on the Cote d'Azur for almost a year now, and one of the supposed highlights is of course St-Tropez. I say supposed, because a lot of people say it's over-rated. So anyway, we figured it was time for us to go and see for ourselves... Also a good opportunity to try out our new Panasonic DMC-TZ3 digital camera - with its x10 optical zoom (so from now on, dear reader, you may notice a slight improvement in the quality of the pictures on this blog - as the pictures so far have mostly been taken with Nokia mobiles ;-).



So, off we went, down the A8 towards St-Trop'. As people had warned us traffic would be a nightmare, we headed off pretty early, about 9 o'clock. Well, a lot of good that did. About 20 kilometres before reaching our destination, the queues started. Not that surprising, really, considering it was the start of school holidays, and also some kind of big sales day (as we found out, most people seem to go to St-Tropez to shop - and not just top-of-the-range luxury stuff).



Saint-Tropez itself was a bit of a mixed bag for me. My initial impression was one of disappointment. We headed down a ridiculously crowded shopping, and ended up in the equally ridiculously crowded and commercialised Vieux Port. But as we spent a bit of time exploring Saint-Tropez, it did turn out to be a very pretty place, and quite nice on the whole. You just have to get off the beaten track a bit, down the small streets off the main drags. And the setting is absolutely amazing, located in a pretty bay, surrounded by mountains. And unlike the Alpes-Maritimes, the Var department (where Saint-Tropez is located) seems a lot less developed. After a rather disappointing lunch (the service must've been the slowest ever so far on the Riviera - although I have to admit the Tarte Tropezienne I had for desert was quite edible ;-), we headed up to the old fortress, from where we had some great views over the town and the surrounding areas.



Fearing more traffic jams, we left in the early afternoon, and decided to explore the surrounding area a bit. So we headed down south to the Phare de Camarat, from where we did a short walk down the coastline - again, we were rewarded by some really beautiful views.

From there we visited a couple of pretty Provencal villages, Ramatuelle and Gassin. They were both, as villages usually are in this part of the world, very picturesque, offering great views over the surrounding areas. Especially Gassin, which was apparently elected “one of the most beautiful villages in Europe” (which of course doesn’t have to mean a whole lot ;-), was a revelation.



It was getting dark, and my stomach was grumbling, so we had to push on. We decided to stop and have dinner in Sainte-Maxime. After exploring the options (and there are a lot – Sainte-Maxime being one of the main tourist resorts in the Var), we opted for a cosy little place in the old town. A nice end to a very nice day!