DAY 49 - THU 4/18 - St. Tropez

Today was our first real road trip. It was a gorgeous day, mild temperature and plenty of sun. We figured we'd better take advantage of it and go to a seaside town. So we picked St. Tropez, the furthest town away from Beaulieu that we would want to drive to. It's about 100 kilometers west of Nice, about 60 miles. Considering traffic and construction, this should take about 1-1/2 hours on the Autoroute, but we made a few wrong turns before and after the highway, so it probably took us over 2 hours, but it didn't matter. We have nothing but time.

When we got to St. Tropez we found a parking spot immediately, right in the centre ville (town center) by the main square, Place de Lices. 

There are about 5,000 people who actually live in St. Tropez year round, but in season it is estimated that 100,000 people PER DAY visit the town...incredible! They warn you that in the summer you really can't get around with so many cars and people. 

The town is made up of many restaurants and gift shops, mostly around the charming port, and then a maze of tiny little delightful streets and alleys lined with designer shops...they definitely have the heavy hitter customers that come off their yachts or pile out of their Bentleys to shop. 

    

The boats in the harbor were some of the biggest and most beautiful we have seen and it's not even the season yet. If you want to go to the beach in St. Tropez, they are outside of town and you must drive there. So we didn't see any bathing beauties today, topless or otherwise, as we did in Nice yesterday.

    

Jill read somewhere that every Thursday afternoon, the town's most famous resident, Brigette Bardot, comes out to the port near the TI (Tourist Information center) and signs autographs. Today was in fact Thursday, but she was not there (though her picture is everywhere in town). So we went into the TI and asked about it. They said she did do it until a few years ago, but she stopped ...she's about 80 now. We were disappointed...she's a real world icon.

We did a bit of a passagiata around the port, and then picked a lovely restaurant to have lunch out in the sun and facing the port. It was devine, salmon tartar and a Salade Nicoise. We then shared a Tarte Tropezienne, a round white cake filled with cream and sprinkled with sugar...it's OK but nothing spectacular, but they are ubiquitous, and you see them everywhere.

Then we strolled around some of the little streets looking in the shops at the beautiful things on display but didn't buy anything. Back in our car, we decided to take the local route along the coast to see some of the lesser known towns along the Mediterranean. The route became a Corniche, a twisty, windy, single lane in each direction, road with sharp turns and switchbacks high over the water at times...quite spectacular, and Marty loved driving it. He's a frustrated race car driver. Jill spent much of the time under the dash board. When we finally got to Cannes, a much larger city than we recalled, after almost 2 hours, we were getting tired, so we decided to get on the Autoroute and get back to Nice more quickly and directly. We made the right decision and will visit Cannes in depth another day.

Long-distance biker...amazing guy...not young.

Approaching Nice in the distance...

We arrived in Nice at around 6:30 and immediately felt more comfortable. There is something about Nice that we find more enchanting than Cannes but will give that city another chance later. 

Back in Nice...

Jill had read up on the restaurant scene in Nice and found a good one called Chez Antoine on rue Le Prefecture where all the smart, young thirty somethings hang around in restaurant after restaurant. They are fully booked for the evening but something clicked with the owner and he said that he had a free table only for an hour until 9:30 when it was reserved. We jumped all over it and enjoyed a nice French bistrot dinner and were out by 9:30 as planned. We walked for a hour or so in what during the day is the Flower Market but on a warm night becomes restaurant city outdoors. 

The long and strenuous driving has taken its toll on both of us and so we fetch our car from the underground garage and head home. OMG, another spectacular day on the Côte 
d'Azur.

Bonne nuit tout le monde.