St Tropez, our way

I wanted to visit the old part of St Tropez and the Citadelle. John was less keen, mainly because the town was likely to be busy on a Saturday, but he was won round with the promise of a walk afterwards. This is our way of visiting popular places… see the bits we want to early in the day, then get out and do something most tourists don’t 😊

John was right about St Tropez being busy! We had to get off our bikes and push through the crowds of people at the port. There was a sailing regatta on, Voiles de Saint-Tropez, so there were lots of yachtees in town, all very well dressed, unlike us in our activewear!

We locked the bikes up at the edge of the old town and wandered through the narrow streets and uphill to the 17th century Citadelle. There were cat sculptures in the town and naked men and women hanging around in the fortress.

The Citadelle is a solid dumpy fortress with ramparts overlooking the Gulf of St Tropez. It houses a museum on the maritime history of the area, which was much more interesting than I expected. We spent an hour or so wandering through the rooms and reading about the displays until we popped out on top of the fortress.

After enjoying the views and watching the yachts for a while, we headed back down to the coast for our 8 mile walk on the Sentier du Littoral.

It was a lovely varied walk along the coastline, below the mansions of the rich and famous. There were lots of privée entrée interdite signs!

We walked along sandy beaches, through bamboo and scrubby bushes taller than me, scrambled over rocks, and just about managed to avoid getting wet feet. Spot the man with the octopus/squid in his hand in the photo below… that upset me… poor thing! 😢

There were lots of little jetties, including some with sea water swimming pools between them, and ladders leading down into the clear turquoise water. I assume these would have been used by the rich and famous years ago before everyone travelled, whereas nowadays they’re all in their swimming pools behind their high locked gates and hedges.

The views were beautiful, and the path was delightful. There was plenty of shade for the first couple of hours, and a cool breeze, so the walk was very enjoyable.

When we turned the corner at Pointe de la Rabiou, the effect of the breeze was less obvious and it felt hotter and, after the Cap de St Tropez, it was hotter still. I hoped to find a beach bar with beer, ice cream or, even better still, both. Unfortunately that didn’t happen and I had to make do with lukewarm water from our bottles. My ham buttie was nice though 😜

Finally, we reached Plage des Salins and turned back across the headland. The few kilometres on road wasn’t as bad as I expected because there was some shade. We quickly got that out of the way and returned to the Gulf of St Tropez where we picked up the breeze again.

We had planned to stop and swim along this section but, in the time that we’d walked around the headland, the best beaches and swimming spots had got very busy. Instead we had a refreshing, cold beer in town and headed back to the campsite. The town was still busy and it was good to get away from the hustle and bustle.

PS note the sea grass debris making up the beach above left. I was fascinated to see it had formed mini cliffs. Although perhaps not conventionally attractive, it would have made a soft place for a sunbathe, if we’d had proper towels.