Hard to believe, but we slept late again today, haha. Another "European" breakfast and we were on the road with a fully recharged GPS (thank you, wall socket). We headed toward our destination of Saint-Tropez, which was to take a little over an hour, however it took us about three hours. Armed with all the technology we could muster, the lack of decent street signs (make that any street signs, in many cases) made it a real challenge. But getting off the beaten path, even unintentionally, afforded us the opportunity to see the gorgeous French countryside of rolling fields, vineyards and quaint villages. We stopped in a vineyard to take pictures of an ancient abandoned stone building surrounded by grapevines. It was so very, ummmm, French!
We finally got on the right road and entered the town of Saint-Tropez. Yes, this is the hometown of Bridgitt Bardot. Wow, the tourists here were of a much higher class and the merchandise (and price tags) in the shops matched the clientele. We had a picnic lunch by the water. There were a few yachts floating in the harbor, then one came ashore. As the crew worked to tie it down, people started streaming over to see who would get off the fancy boat. According to my travel book, celebrities are always coming and going off the yachts here and the tourists love to stalk them like paparazzi. Don’t get excited because no one famous emerged from the yacht; it was just some ridiculously wealthy Greek tycoon and his kids.
Driving along the coastline was sooo pretty. One little town blended into the next and all were full of gorgeous palms and oleanders in white and all shades of pink. Cedar trees are everywhere which look amazingly right for this part of the world…..still don’t understand why all the builders stick them in front of the mansions in south Texas. Each little town had such character, full of cute hotels and restaurants. The beaches weren’t very big, but there were many, many small ones, full of people on “holiday”. We changed into our swimsuits in the car (thank you Betsy and Molly for your example of how to discreetly change clothes in the car after soccer games) and went to the beach. I was the only female not wearing a bikini. There were women my age and older sporting itsy bitsy bikinis long after they shouldn’t be, but in some ways I admire the fact they enjoy themselves as they are, since “it is what it is” with mid-life bodies. Now the old fat guys in Speedos, not so much! The first beach was made of small, smooth rocks which hurt the bottoms of our feet to walk on in the water. In fact, it was just awful every time a wave came up and washed more rocks across our feet and pulled them out from under our feet….ouch. We walked over to the next beach which was a sandy beach made with very grainy sand, not exactly like velvet, but less painful than the rocks. The water was colder than we expected, but we got in it because, heck, it was the Mediterranean Sea in all it’s blue glory. Actually, it was a fun experience, and how often do you get to romp through a French vineyard and splash in the Mediterranean Sea in the same afternoon!
We drove to Nice and found our hotel which is located just next to the ancient part of the city which is full of shops and restaurants and gorgeous buildings. This city was founded by the Greeks and is very near Italy. Nice is clearly inspired by the Greek's and Italian's love of color. We walked to Vieux Nice and found a pedestrian boulevard several blocks long containing at least 20 outdoor restaurants, each one charming in it’s own way. There were also dozens of colorful tents set up with vendors selling jewelry and paintings. There were hundreds of people eating and shopping, and it appeared to be a younger crowd than the other cities we’ve visited this week. Of all the places to choose from, I (in all my resturant-selecting wisdom) chose the best one of all, Le Safari. In keeping with our vacation schedule, we didn’t sit down to eat dinner until after 9:30,well past Jeff’s normal bedtime!. We got a tomato/mozerella salad, Jeff got a great dish featuring John Dory fish and potatoes and I got Daube Nicosie Raviolis which was a beef stew (with very little liquid) cooked in red wine served over little raviolis. The beef was like a little French grandma’s Sunday pot roast……deeelish. We shared the most wonderful crème brulee ever and didn’t leave the table until 11:15 pm. I know! Who knew Jeff could live like this!
Click here for today's pictures. Click on Slideshow, then click on Full Screen in upper right.
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