Memories

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It was almost like coming home as we settled into our new campsite at Camping Des Mures near Port Grimaud. We had lived around the corner in Marine de Cogolin for four summers and knew the area well. Things have changed, but mainly for the worse; even more traffic, even more difficult to park and an increase in the number of foreigners. Only Dutch, English and Germans go to Port Grimaud we were told, no French! One improvement is the number of cycle lanes that have been created and it is possible to do the eight miles from Sainte Maxime to Saint Tropez without going on the road.



We were soon emailed by our old sailing friends Chantal and Pierre-Al, who now live in Ste Maxime and had heard we were nearby. Next day we set off on our bikes to see them. They had made a meal for us and even though it was only midday we started with an aperitif, had a bottle of rose wine with the meal, finishing with a sweet alcoholic liqueur we had never heard of. The only problem was that neither of them speak any English and Michelle soon grew tired of translating. They cycle ride back after the alcohol was difficult for Michelle but she managed to wobble back.



We will always remember Pierre-Al from when we first met him. The toilet on our boat was blocked and he came onboard to help. He fixed up a hose to the mains water and blasted our ‘blockage’ clear. He stood there with the ‘blockage’ covering him from the waist down; he just laughed and went off for a shower.



We travelled a lot by bike and were up and down the coast each day and, ignoring the heat, Michelle was running three or four miles each morning. A bike ride to St Tropez and car journey to Le Lavandou and Cavalaire sur Mer completed our nostalgic trips.



As the end of June approached, so did the cheap campsite fees as they more than double at the start of July. It was easy to tell as the “grey hairs”, as the Dutch call them, start to pack up and go home. Some of these Dutch men seem to live in a time-warp; many of them have great long, grey, handlebar moustaches and smoke pipes. They seem relics of the pre-World War One era; still, each to their own.

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Photos

Chantal and Pierre Al
In their apartment in Sainte Maxime