A swim in the Mediterranean at Sanary-Sur-Mer

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Happy to report that the crocodile did not get me.

Bob had quite a struggle getting the scooter out of the Tandy as not much room to manoeuvre and the back wheels are on ramps which has made the garage higher than normal. Had to use brute force to get the scooter out and no doubt will have to move the Tandy in order to get the scooter back in again.

We scootered down to Sanary-Sur-Mer centre reasonably early as we wanted to catch the market which, being French, is only open in the mornings. Bought some lovely fresh fruit but failed to get fish as the fish market had already sold out. We obviously should have got up at least an hour earlier.

Sanary is a lovely harbour to walk round, one of the most scenic of all the scenic ones we have seen on our travels. There are quite a number of traditional wooden masted boats, all beautifully decorated and we presume still in full use. No high rise buildings just traditional Provencal style in pastel colours with lots of shutters everywhere. All very pretty and Sanary does have a “4 fleurie” award so there are lots of flowers everywhere.

My idea of having a bit of a shop was, as usual, thwarted. Silly me, forgot that a lot of French shops don’t open on Monday and those in Sanary are no exception. Found a few but only clothes shops and I don’t buy clothes in France as however nice they may be they always seem rather on the expensive side. I admired a skirt but it was €49 and almost identical to one which I bought for £20 in the UK.

Hopefully I can come up with a cunning ploy to get back to the shops tomorrow when they are all open.

We had a drink in one of the many cafes on the harbour. We discovered that 11am is coffee time here in Sanary, all the world and his mate were sitting drinking and chatting. Our waiter was amazing. He came out carrying a tray laden with a dozen drinks, filled coffee cups stacked 2-high, delivered the drinks with total confidence to 5 different tables, collected in the money left on other tables and handed out change and took orders from the new customers. All without drawing breath. We were impressed.

We remembered to post the rest of our postcards. Always a good idea when we want them to get home before us, and then scootered back to the campsite for lunch and to change for the beach.

And so to the sea. Sanary-sur-Mer Lido is a lovely sandy stretch on the way into Bandol. The sun was behind clouds for a lot of the time so at least we didn’t have to worry about getting sunburnt today. And yes, we made it. We went into the Mediterranean and had a very pleasant swim. Though I have swum in the pool every day except one (we were on an aire so had no pool) this is the first time in the sea this trip. I am not saying it was hot in there, because it wasn’t, as temperature definitely lower these last few days at about 25 today, but it was warm enough. We then had to get completely dry as we hadn’t brought anything to change into so we read for a while and the sun kindly came out again and dried us off nicely.

Just time to pop along the road into Bandol for an icecream and then back to the campsite so I could have my full daily swim in the beautifully warm (and empty except for me) campsite pool. I know that I am / must be getting fitter but I still don’t feel it.

Back at the Tandy we had to attack a line of ants which were making their way along the outside and, we suspected, heading for somewhere inside. Have hopefully stopped them with a good spray of Raid but will be keeping a close eye on them, as the thought of an army of ants in the Tandy with us is rather horrific.

Not yet decided where we will go tomorrow. That depends on the weather which is changing to cloudier and rain is forecast at some point. We will make up our minds when we get up and have checked the sky.

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