![\"Grimaud](\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1100668-Grimaud-village-a-lovely-supermarket-car-park-view....800x532.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Camping Les Prairies de la Mer was our choice for a campsite for the next three days.\u00a0 It\u2019s right next to Port Grimaud and there\u2019s a cycle track all the way round the bay to St Tropez, so we\u2019re hoping, if the rain stays away and the wind drops a bit, we can get out and about a bit more, on two wheels.\u00a0 After setting up and chatting to our English next door neighbours, we went for a stroll around today\u2019s address; what a shock !!!\u00a0 \u00a0We\u2019re at a holiday camp; not quite what we expected from the campsite guidebook.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I\u2019m very excited about that!\u00a0 We then took our books down to the beach and settled in for a good bit of book reading among the crowds.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Rodney rustled up a couple of steaks for dinner and we made plans for the next day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After dusting Eileen\u2019s interior, scrubbing the floor and sweeping all the detritus off the tarpaulin outside, we sat down for a while.\u00a0 The wind had dropped and the sky was still a vibrant blue, so we hopped on the bikes and cycled over to Port Grimaud.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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, caf\u00e9s and restaurants.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We stopped for crepes and cold drinks in the Place du March\u00e9 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.\u00a0 Enterprisingly there was a turnstile that on entering \u20ac1 in a slot, you could climb the steps inside the tower and discover a fabulous view at the top.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 The massages were very good indeed and we wandered back in a bit of a daze for a late dinner in Eileen.\u00a0 With our bodies now in a super relaxed state and feeling like we are on holiday, we\u2019ll do the bike ride round to St Tropez tomorrow morning for a day with the rich and famous\u2026\u2026..?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n So here we were in the south of France with one of the world\u2019s most famous villages on the day\u2019s agenda.\u00a0 We unlocked our bikes and cycled out of the campsite gates before 10am.\u00a0 We joined a throng of similarly aged cyclists, all heading in the same direction along the cycle path.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We shuffled through to the big Tuesday market and then nosed in the windows of some of the ridiculously expensive \u2018label\u2019 shops.\u00a0 We found the footpath up to la citadelle (with no name) and found that it has been under renovation for fifteen years and won\u2019t be open until later this year.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Back down in the village we found a funky caf\u00e9\/bar in a very narrow backstreet for lunch and then wandered around a bit more.\u00a0 We stumbled across the tiny Plage la Ponche, made famous by Brigitte Bardot in the movie \u2018And God Created Woman\u2019.\u00a0 We\u2019ll have to get a copy of the movie, because I can\u2019t imagine how they got a whole camera crew down on a beach that small.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We finished the day\u2019s wanderings with chocolate orange ice creams while scrutinising the big money yachts along the quays.\u00a0 There were some beautiful old wooden yachts, many of them from England, all tied up and being cleaned.\u00a0 We were told that there had been a big race between them over the weekend; that must have been quite a sight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 We only wrapped up and went inside at 10pm, due to disgruntled looks from a rather grumpy couple parked right next to us.\u00a0 There\u2019s a half empty campsite here and they didn\u2019t have to set up camp so close to us and 10pm wasn\u2019t so late\u2026\u2026.was it?\u00a0\u00a0 Ah well the grumpies left the next morning!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It took us a while to leave the campsite at La Tour Fondue because you ‘re not allowed to unplug your electricity connection; it\u2019s locked in a box.\u00a0 After packing everything up and paying up, we had to wait for half an hour before someone came over to disconnect us.\u00a0 We\u2019d never come across this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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![\"](\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1100671-Cycling-round-Port-Grimaud800x518.jpg\")
![\"St](\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1100681-St-Tropez-from-Port-Grimaud800x533.jpg\")
![\"Place](\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1100678-Place-du-March\u00e9-800x532.jpg\")
![\"Looking](\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1100679-Looking-towards-our-campsite-from-the-church-tower800x498.jpg\")
![\"Villas](\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1100692-Villas-of-the-rich-and-famous-800x533.jpg\")
![\"Porte](\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1100701-Porte-du-Revelen-and-the-Plage-Ponche-800x533.jpg\")
![\"Some](\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1100696-Some-serious-money......800x533.jpg\")
![\"Looking](\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1100689-Looking-out-from-the-citadel-towards-Port-Grimaud-and-our-campsite800x495.jpg\")