Blogs from Saint-Tropez, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 3

This Sunday, I spent the night in a train station with two gypsy women and their crying babies. Hardly what I imagined for my first night in St Tropez. After six hours, the TGV from Angers arrived in Marseilles on time at 7:15pm Sunday evening. I rushed to catch the connecting train set to depart at 7:59pm for St Raphael. From St Raphael I would take a bus to La Foux where Fred would pick me up and whisk me away to his beautiful house in St Tropez. I would be tucked away, drunk and full of Rose, in a warm bed by 1am, well-rested and ready for a day of boozing on some boat in the tres azur mer of the francais mediterranean cote. System kind of broke down, to say the least. As I ... read more

Hi. We got here on Sunday after a really poor night with Suze feeling bad but Ben worse (vommiting half the night). A really busy drive down but finally got to a site that fitted our needs about 7 pm. Within 30 mins I (steve) joined the pukey club. Not a good start. Since we have been here we have been to St Tropez. It was lovely but had to sit in traffic for ages until we got bored and walked. It was very busy but worth the hassle. We also went to see the canyon de Verdon which is supposed to be tha second biggest in the world. Again, very busy but spectacular views. Unfortunately just as we were going to kayak into it a lightning storm started so we couldn't go in. typical of ... read more

I haven't had time to update for the last week or so for obvious reasons. I woke up at 8 or 9 in Paris at Hotel Le Bristol. I had packed my bags the night before since I decided not to go out after dinner the previous night. It didn't seem like a good idea to stay out late with an early trip, especially when I wanted to have maximum energy for night one in St. Tropez. Checking in for the flight proved be a huge ordeal and I'm still not sure why Europeans love having nonsensical setups on most forms of travel registration. There was a mass of people funneling into 2 lines, but no one from the airline was there to tell people what line was for which flight, which was to get your ... read more

Sunday afternoon the younger Caroline invited me to her aunt's pool for a swim. Her family lives in several of the houses bordering the house we are currently in and rent them out throughout the year. The pool and accompanying view were gorgeous as you can tell from the pictures. Monday afternoon I spent with Jeanne, one of the girls down at the polo club. (Her name is pronounced kinda like Jen only longer). Jeanne is 19, will be 20 in December and lives in a town outside of Paris with her mother. For two months this summer she is working as a riding instructor for tourists coming to the St. Tropez polo club. She learned how to speak English while in England and thus has a wonderful English accent - very cute. She swears a ... read more

Monday night we took Rochelle's car over to the town of Sainte Maxime on the opposite side of St. Tropez. The evening was beautiful and clear and displayed a gorgeous sunset against the water and coastline. Parking was much easier than in St. Tropez and we found a spot without much trouble. After parking, we walked into the town which reminded me a bit of Second Street with the cute shops and restaurants all lit up with twinkling outdoor lights. Caroline picked a little outdoor cafe with a yellow canopy called "Sophie's". Like many of the bordering shops and restaurants, Sophie's had originally been a little house that was converted into an area for dining patrons and cooking meals. Our waitress was cute and friendly as was all the staff. We all ordered from the "menu ... read more