It took us a while to leave the campsite at La Tour Fondue because you ‘re not allowed to unplug your electricity connection; it’s locked in a box. After packing everything up and paying up, we had to wait for half an hour before someone came over to disconnect us. We’d never come across this set up before, so it was a bit frustrating when we just wanted to get going. Next frustration, no supermarkets open, so we hit the D98 and enjoyed the drive across the hills rather than chance another coastal route. It was a pretty section of road and I got my first glimpse ever of cork trees. We finally stopped just short of Grimaud when we were overjoyed to spot a supermarket still open on a Sunday morning! We wanted to park up for a few days, so it was good to be able to stock up while we still had four wheels under us. The view of Grimaud was so lovely from the supermarket car park that we stayed there after it had closed and ate our lunch gazing up at the view.
Camping Les Prairies de la Mer was our choice for a campsite for the next three days. It’s right next to Port Grimaud and there’s a cycle track all the way round the bay to St Tropez, so we’re hoping, if the rain stays away and the wind drops a bit, we can get out and about a bit more, on two wheels. After setting up and chatting to our English next door neighbours, we went for a stroll around today’s address; what a shock !!! We’re at a holiday camp; not quite what we expected from the campsite guidebook. We checked out all the bars, cafes and restaurants within the campsite, sussed out the beach and then on finding a spa too, we booked ourselves a massage for tomorrow at 6pm. I’m very excited about that! We then took our books down to the beach and settled in for a good bit of book reading among the crowds. Unfortunately the wind was sand blasting us so much that after only three chapters, we decided we needed showers and some non-windy time indoors. Rodney rustled up a couple of steaks for dinner and we made plans for the next day.
After dusting Eileen’s interior, scrubbing the floor and sweeping all the detritus off the tarpaulin outside, we sat down for a while. The wind had dropped and the sky was still a vibrant blue, so we hopped on the bikes and cycled over to Port Grimaud. We got a map from the tourist office and then realised that the village is basically a massive modern marina built, circa 1966, in a delightful Provence style. After a bit of a cycle round, we locked up the bikes and wandered in to the main tourist section which is a busy mix of shops, ships chandlers, cafés and restaurants.
We stopped for crepes and cold drinks in the Place du Marché and then noticed some people on the top of the tower attached to the church of St Francis of Assisi, so after paying the bill, we wandered over to see if we could get up there. Enterprisingly there was a turnstile that on entering €1 in a slot, you could climb the steps inside the tower and discover a fabulous view at the top. We stayed up there for quite a while looking over all the colourful buildings winding around the waterways, the hills behind Port Grimaud and over the bay to St Tropez.
Finally we retrieved our bikes and cycled back to the campsite, donned the swimsuits and took our books down to the quieter, now non-windy beach for a pleasant rest before our 6pm appointments. The massages were very good indeed and we wandered back in a bit of a daze for a late dinner in Eileen. With our bodies now in a super relaxed state and feeling like we are on holiday, we’ll do the bike ride round to St Tropez tomorrow morning for a day with the rich and famous……..?
So here we were in the south of France with one of the world’s most famous villages on the day’s agenda. We unlocked our bikes and cycled out of the campsite gates before 10am. We joined a throng of similarly aged cyclists, all heading in the same direction along the cycle path. After half an hour of steady, mainly flat, peddling we found ourselves in St Tropez on a gloriously sunny day. It was pretty busy in town, with two cruise ships full of tourists being led around behind flag holding leaders. We shuffled through to the big Tuesday market and then nosed in the windows of some of the ridiculously expensive ‘label’ shops. We found the footpath up to la citadelle (with no name) and found that it has been under renovation for fifteen years and won’t be open until later this year. Ah well, we had a nice walk around the walls taking in the fabulous views over St Tropez and down on to some of the villas of the rich and famous.
Back down in the village we found a funky café/bar in a very narrow backstreet for lunch and then wandered around a bit more. We stumbled across the tiny Plage la Ponche, made famous by Brigitte Bardot in the movie ‘And God Created Woman’. We’ll have to get a copy of the movie, because I can’t imagine how they got a whole camera crew down on a beach that small.
We finished the day’s wanderings with chocolate orange ice creams while scrutinising the big money yachts along the quays. There were some beautiful old wooden yachts, many of them from England, all tied up and being cleaned. We were told that there had been a big race between them over the weekend; that must have been quite a sight.
We peddled like crazy back to the campsite and then, after a very light snack, we settled in for a lovely evening of good conversation with our neighbours Ian and Ann from St Ives in Cambridgeshire. We only wrapped up and went inside at 10pm, due to disgruntled looks from a rather grumpy couple parked right next to us. There’s a half empty campsite here and they didn’t have to set up camp so close to us and 10pm wasn’t so late…….was it? Ah well the grumpies left the next morning!
