Undeterred

Wednesday 10 October

We had to say goodbye to Kay this morning, she is heading off to Nice and we sad to see her go but very happy to have known her. We are certain to meet her again somewhere in the world. Caroline and Ed headed off today too.

We purchased the dongle today. Had lunch in our favorite spot at the end of the harbour wall, very hot and windy. We bumped into Greta, Luc and Elizabeth 3 times in town and walked partway along the coastal path back to the campsite. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening getting the blog up to date. Best of all we were able to have a long chat with Josie on Skype. For the first time in 5 days we had an evening to ourselves. 

St Tropez has many sides to it but we wanted to show you some of the more picturesque views of the town. Here is a collection of photos to show its more interesting and historical side. 

Tuesday 9th October

Today we thought it would be nice to venture outside of St Tropez. We decided that we would go to Port Grimaud which is to the west of St Tropez tucked right inside the bay. We also decided it would be fun if Kay came with us. There are two ways to get there, one is a 20 min bus ride and the other which would be much more interesting was by ferry from St Tropez harbour. But first we wanted to go to the phone shop in St Tropez and buy the dongle so that we could get up to date with blog and send a few emails.

We left the camp site at around 10 am - it was already quite hot. A really pleasant day. As we approached the town centre it was market day again. Having battled our way through the crowds there we made our way to the SFR phone shop only to find they chose this particular day to close and do a stock check. As, surprisingly it’s the only phone shop in St Tropez, that was the end of that.

Undeterred, we then made our way to the harbourside, past all the lovely boats to the green ferries were moored up ready to take passengers out to Pt Grimaud and other destinations. The lady in the ticket office advised us that the ferries had ceased operation as it was end of season. 

Undeterred, again, we walked to tourist information office and got a bus timetable. The next bus wasn’t for another hour and a half. On leaving the tourist info office we made our way around the harbour and to the ice cream shop. It had a huge L shaped counter brimming with tubs of quality ice cream of all imaginable flavours. Kay treated us all to an icecream. We had toffee pecan, Kay had tiramisu. They were delicious and very filling. 

Unfortunately we had forgotten our street map of St Tropez but had a general idea of the location of the bus station. We did actually venture down the wrong road and bypassed to station having to double back. We found a bench to wait the 40 mins for the bus. The bus departed on time and we knew from the timetable that there were 3 stops before our destination. When we got off at the 3rd stop the driver informed us that the previous stop was Port Grimaud and we had to walk back. The walk was enjoyable and we even came across the local Aire (campsite) which as usual was on the main road and in fact we had been warned not to camp there but it looked OK to us.

After a false start we spied the tourist information office 300m from the real bus stop. When we arrived it was of course closed. Undeterred, we backtracked to the security official who advised us that the centre was 300m in the direction we had come from, to the roundabout where the bus stop was. So back we went and this time made it into the centre of Port Grimaud. 

Port Grimaud was the creation of an architect Francois Spoerry, whose idea for Port Grimaud was nurtured in the 50’s as he wanted to avoid getting up in the night to check the boat’s mooring. He designed a leisure port on the model of Venice. In 1962 he obtained a stretch of mosquito infested marshy land. It took him 4 years to obtain building permission for a project widely regarded as crazy. Every house has a waterfront and a boat mooring. Some 2500 houses, 30 bars & restaurants and shops all accessible via the bridges. Unfortunately when we visited there was very little atmosphere because it was pretty well closed up for winter and it seemed quite empty of people. What should have been a vibrant and buzzing community reverted to what it really is - a marina village for the affluent. 

We decided our best move was to head for the bar and had a great time having drinks and interesting conversation with Kay. Later we caught the bus back and strolled back to the campsite. We had dinner with Kay sitting outside Campy eating a delicious casserole made by Kay. We were joined after by two fellow brits, Caroline and Ed. The kit on board their Ifor Williams trailer included a motorbike, wetsuits, skiing kit and all manner of camping equipment. The bikes and BBQ were in the garage of the camper. A relatively young couple who have been touring for a year and a half. More wine and more interesting conversation. They knew the area of Spain that we are heading to and gave us lots of tips on where to camp and places to visit.