St Tropez (Part 1)

Chanel Villa in St Tropez   

Of course, our lovely existence at the western end of the Golfe de St Tropez was missing the real St Tropez action. We planned to make up for this with a visit coinciding with the Tuesday market but markets are morning affairs and so it was an early start for us on Tuesday.

Caroline drove us into St Tropez as she was wanting to visit the market too. With just one road into St Tropez it gets busy quickly and so we were glad that we had set off early.

With the car parked we wandered into the town and fairly quickly realised that St Tropez is every bit as exclusive as its reputation. We passed a villa owned by Chanel and even the Gendarmerie police station was immaculate.

Wandering around the market I was reminded of 2 statements in our tourist guide book, “come spring or summer, [St Tropez’s] a different world: the town’s population increases tenfold, prices triple, and celebrities (particularly French, including crooner Johnny Hallyday) and their party apparatchiks monopolise the town”. Also, “To get a glimpse of what attracted so many artists to these beautiful shores, avoid visiting in July and August. And take heart if you’re only around in the summer: it’s always fun to play ‘I spy…’ (a celebrity)”.

Despite visiting in July, we didn’t knowingly see any celebrities but we did see the tripled prices at the market!

We shared the fun of wandering around the market and walked away with a selection of dried sausages to cut up and munch with our sundowners.

St Tropez acquired its name in AD 68 when a Roman officer named Torpes was beheaded on Nero’s orders in Pisa, and packed into a boat with a dog and a rooster to devour his remains. His headless corpse washed up here intact, leading the villagers to adopt him as their patron saint. For centuries St Tropez remained a peaceful little fishing village, attracting painters like Paul Signac, but few tourists. That changed dramatically in 1956 when Et Dieu Créa la Femme was shot here, starring Brigitte Bardot, catapulting the village into the international limelight.

As a result, the streets are now filled with designer boutiques and the roads with expensive machinery. There are Bentleys, Maseratis and Ferraris a plenty and Porsches are positively common. For those wishing to travel more incognito, there are also lots of Mini Mokes.

However, for the really expensive machinery you have to head for the harbour. Despite its size they manage to cram in an amazing number of huge yachts and for those lucky enough to get [and afford to pay for] a mooring here, life being stared at by all of the passing tourists is guaranteed.

Around the harbour are a series of rather fun dancing lady sculptures. We didn’t see who had made them but they are very colourful and certainly a bit different to the norm.

St Tropez, France