Tuesday 3rd July 2018

A scenic drive down to St Tropez and along the coast was the plan for today.

The colours of the bushes along the verges were beautiful, the bright colours of the pink flowers the green leaves and the clear blue sky certainly added to the pleasure of this trip.

Our first stop of the day was at a town Jane had read about in the guide book called Bormes-les-Mimosas. This was well worth taking time for a little diversion to go and see.

This beautiful place was perched on top of a hill overlooking the Mediterranean………….

I’m not too sure if the guide book had mentioned the handbag shops but Jane managed to find them without too many problems!

Whilst I on the other hand was content to sit in the shade and look after the picnic!

After sightseeing, shopping and lunch, and a bit more driving, the lure of the sea was getting too much for me. We found a little  beach at a place called La Croix-Valmer to stop and have a swim, and seeing as everyone else was going topless I thought I would join them (Jane still hasn’t fixed the hole in the elbow of my other swimming costume!) The water was lovely and refreshing; just what I needed to wake me up for the drive along the windy backroads to St Tropez.

Arriving in St Tropez from along the smaller backroads we came upon the Citadel. After about 20 minutes of trying to figure out the parking meter we arrived at this impressive building.

The castle had commanding views of the bay and the surrounding area.

This is a view through the glass of the light which is used to guide the multi-million pound yachts into port, although I expect they have Sat-Nav as well!

We were going to hire a super-yacht for a week but the one we wanted with the helipad had been taken and Jane had had her heart set on that one so we will have to wait until  next year for that!

We were lucky to find not one, but two, parking spots in town.  At the time we didn’t realise how lucky that was until speaking to friends afterwards. So a short stroll from our second parking space (outside Dior and Gucci, and no we didn’t go in!) and we were in the harbour. The old port was full of small sailing boats…………

……..and they looked very much in keeping with the surroundings…………….

…….but turn around and you see all the huge great boats absolutely oozing with money, with young bikini clad girls posing all over them, mind you I didn’t mind that too much! This is a picture of the inner harbour, there are many many more craft of all different  sizes just around the corner, out of shot. I did enjoy my visit to St Tropez, however I found the atmosphere to be slightly “false”, with money seeming to be too much in evidence,  and because of that the charm of this place was slightly diminished in my eyes. Mind you if we hire that yacht next year that feeling will probably change!