St Tropez (Part 2)

The old citadel sits on the high ground just to the east of the town   

Having walked around the town we worked our way up towards the old citadel. It was built in 1602 as part of Henry IV’s plan of fortifications to deter the Spanish from invading the Provencal coast.

Today it contains a maritime/fishing museum but we climbed the hill primarily to get a good view down over St Tropez and the surrounding area.

Walking around the walls we eventually found a gap in the trees to get our good view down over the town….

Baie des Canebiers   

... and further around we were able to look down into the Baie des Canebiers. From high up we had an even better view of the exclusive villas than we’d had when arriving on BV. It was a difficult choice to work out which one we’d settle on living in if we happened to stumble across the odd spare billion or two.

After a very pleasant circuit of the citadel walls we came to long stepped path which took us back down to the town.

Here we found the fish market; all of the fish looked fantastic but one of the stall holders made it clear that she didn’t like photographs being taken. Fortunately, by then I had already taken 2. Presumably the celebrity lobsters dressed in their own special hessian jackets didn’t like the paparazzi (or me) taking photos of them.

Back outside we wandered around a little more of the town but specifically into the back alleys and smaller streets. St Tropez certainly has some lovely corners and you could do far worse than while away the summer here; it’s delightful.

Our route back to the car took us past the harbour again. It was nice that, despite all of the glitz, some smaller yachts were tucked away in the corner. A little puzzling was very busy team of divers when one of the yachts started to leave. We subsequently found out from Sean that for the visiting yachts it is compulsory to hire the port divers when you leave (at a cost of a cool €150!). The harbour is so small that the yachts’ anchor chains invariable end up across each other in a jumble and the divers are apparently essential to untangle the mess. [Ed: one might ask about their putting in permanent moorings with pick-up lines – but doubtless that would be nowhere near as lucrative and would risk nasty, muddy water getting on the beautifully polished topsides!].

The drive back to Cogolin was painless for us but the route into town was crawling at a snail’s pace. We had timed our visit to St Tropez well!

St Tropez, France