We can’t really say we’ve seen Aix-en-Provence as it’s just a little town on the highway that makes it easier for us to get to St. Tropez. Actually, it’s 8:00am and we’re on the road, on our way. So for us, Aix-en-Provence was a nice dinner and an ok brekkie. We had dinner at the hotel last night, nice and easy. It was an entrée buffet, and a dessert buffet, with a choice of main meal in between. The entrées were interesting, again, not much of an idea of what we were eating, but they were nice either way. It was the same with the desserts. There was something that the only word we recognized was ‘violet’ and it was a creamy thing that tasted like what lovely roses smell like. And real French chocolate mousse.
The electricity kept going off, both during the night and this morning. It’s always fun to feel your way around a room you don’t know looking for the toilet! Other than that, the hotel was all good. We’ve left early this morning to get to St. Tropez as the parking is meant to be a little on the manic side of things. Our theory is that they have all partied all night, being on holidays and all, and that they will be asleep until noon. Fingers crossed for us hey?
SAINT TROPEZ:
What a marvelous place! It was a bit of an effort in mad, windy, narrow roads to get in there, but it was 100% worthwhile. I was on the phone to Jamie as well at one stage, but we took a wrong turn and so I had to go (putting this in here so that Jamie can have a giggle). Saint Tropez is like a sleepy Gold Coast – all a bit glam, but the beaches were nice and quiet, at least at the time of the morning that we were there they were! By lunchtime when we left, it was all getting a little on the mad side of things. But, we got there early enough, found our way onto one of the main beaches, and got that fabulous park (for both the car and then on the beach for us) that we were hoping on. The view was sensational. A big bay, with mountains reaching down to the sea on either side, and nice calm, cool water, so that you could just float there looking at everything. Of course there were also the obligatory yachts that were four times the size of our house.
The sand on the beach was very gritty, almost like ground up shells really, but once you got a few feet out in the water, it was nice soft sand and totally clear water. No waves, it was more like being in a lagoon, but the occasional jetski or speedboat would go past and so you’d get some movement from that. It was also pretty shallow for quite some way, so it was really great for families and Japanese tourists who can’t swim in Australian waves. It was really fabulous – just floating in the Mediterranean, and being not too hot, and not too cold. We could have spent the whole day in the water. The sun was good too, not like ours where you can feel yourself getting scorched. We ended up spending the whole day in the sun and both of us just got a little bit pink, not really burnt at all.
It was getting closer to noon and the beach was getting more crowded. We can’t really get over how Europeans jam pack into every spare available inch of sand. I can’t say I have ever seen beaches this crowded, even Bondi in the middle of a heat wave doesn’t get that packed. We had a family of Germans pull up in front of us – and I mean so close to us that their beach umbrella put us in the shade as well. It kind of killed the view for us, I’ve never enjoyed hairy back and crack views, plus they had two yappy dogs, one of which bit a little girl of about 2 who was walking past with her grandfather. So we decided it was time to pack up shop, go find some lunch, and then head off to Cannes for the afternoon.
We dropped into the ‘town’ of Saint Tropez to get lunch. We parked at the marina and admired the gorgeous yachts (these put James Packer’s yacht to shame) and then found a little tourist shop to get the obligatory fridge magnet. However, it would seem that the French Riviera does not believe in either good, nor glam, fridge magnets! I mean, sheesh, don’t the jet set collect fridge magnets too and want (demand) good ones? Anyway, poxyish fridge magnet obtained, we found a nice little bakery and had a very yummy chicken baguette and the more than yummy raspberry tart that was in the window. We sat at the tables on the sidewalk and watched the beautiful people pass by. There were lots of cars, lots of very nice cars at that. We even saw the standard fare of Ferrari’s and Mazerati’s.
CANNES:
Back on the road again, and we headed along the coast road for Cannes. This is simply a beautiful part of the world! East of Saint Tropez is St Maxime, and we would stay there if we came this way on holiday again. Gorgeous little coves everywhere with that lovely blue/green coloured waters of the Mediterranean. A little further on was Frejus, and St Raphael – again, both lovely places. This entire strip of coast is built out, many private homes, and then lots of hotels and resorts in between. Cannes was a bit of a let down though – it was like an over the top Gold Coast. Miles of beach with small pebbles, and only a narrow strip at that before you hit the water. We found a park along the road and went for a swim. The water was just as lovely as it was at Saint Tropez, cool enough to make you jump when you get in, but once you’re all wet, it’s just perfect. We dried off and hit the road again, I jumped out a bit further along to grab the poxy fridge magnet, while Mark went for a joy ride all over Cannes looking for a place to do a u-turn to come back and pick me up. Fifteen minutes later, I was back in the car and we were on our way to Nice for the night.
NICE:
We checked into the hotel and then headed off to grab a tram into the main square. Nice is a pretty cool little city with lots happening all over the place. The main square was full of people, even when we headed back to the hotel close to 11:00pm. There was a lovely fountain area, and the standard large statue of someone famous whom we have never heard of. There were a heap of skateboarders trying their skills on jumping off and over steps, or, for many, their lack of skill.
We found a restaurant, and went for the ‘menu of the day’ option, always a good choice as they seem to be really nice meals, something you may not necessarily order (because you can’t translate well), and always at least half the price of the meals on the a-la-carte menu. This one started with a plate of four little things – here comes my terribly descriptive description: something on a piece of bread that was like a tangy soft cheese, a puff pastry triangle with sweet meat inside, salad leaves sweetened with something and wrapped in lots of jamon, and then a tomato stuffed with meat, very different meat from the other things though. It was all really yummy and almost filled us up before we got the main meal. I had a steak that had a sweet mustard sauce and Mark had salmon that had some strange olive type sauce. For dessert, as we were in France, we figured profiteroles would be the right choice, but it seems even the French will pre-make some foods as well! Dinner over with, we caught the tram back to the Virgil-Barry stop (Thunderbirds are go!) (really, it was the Virgile Baril stop), and got ourselves all organized for Monaco the next day.
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