Port Grimaud

Taking the dinghy up the Rivière Giscle

Villas on the the Rivière Giscle

On Wednesday 19 July, we took the dinghy up the Rivière Giscle, towards Sean’s pad and then turned right through a small side canal into Port Grimaud.

Until the 1970s this area was just swamp. Architect Francois Spoerry was tasked with designing a luxury marina and associated villas complex and came up with this – a stylised Provencal village, cut by canals and almost entirely free of motorcars. Properties here are ridiculously expensive, just as they are on much of the rest of this coast, but at least at Port Grimaud after you’ve blown a couple of million on a villa you can go the whole hog and have your yacht moored right next to it!

Whilst Port Grimaud ‘village’ is primarily all about having a villa and a yacht mooring together, there is a ‘standard’ marina in the centre of it for the use of the grotty yachtie riff raff [Ed: people like us, though we went one more notch downscale in electing to anchor off and dinghy in!].

However, the village is also a popular place with tourists. There are several large camp sites nearby and Port Grimaud ‘village’ is a very pleasant place to wander around for an afternoon.

There are arched bridges over the canals and fun tunnels under some other the buildings. The footpaths wander pleasingly alongside the water and around the very attractive villas, and there are barely any cars because much of the area is inaccessible to them.

Traffic snarl up Port Grimaud style. Three electric boats vs one professional tripper boat.
The latter won, but only just!    

Unsurprisingly, there are numerous restaurants and cafés in which to while away some time watching the world go by. It is even possible to hire an electric boat for an hour or so and help in providing some of the entertainment for those who are lounging in the cafes.

We had taken a brief wander around the centre of Port Grimaud with Sean and Caroline on our first day, so we contented ourselves with mapping every last convoluted turn of the waterways and wondering at the traffic jam possibilities should all the residents of the village decide to go yachting at the same time. Around each corner was something else to ‘ooh’ or ‘aahh’ over. Outside the swish villa above was a small Riva speedboat. I had thought that it was just Rivas like the one pictured above that were so expensive but we met a crew which looked after a very similarly looking 37ft speedboat of another make, and they also apparently retail at an amazing £1million a copy; a lot of money when you don’t even get a cabin!

However, after an hour or so of gentle pottering, it was time for us to head back. We had arranged to cook dinner for Sean and Caroline (ashore rather than on BV) and needed to get together all the ingredients before rendezvousing at the house and doing sundowners by the hot tub.

Port Grimaud, Golfe de St Tropez, France