Headed out mid-morning towards St Tropez -- it's about an hour plus west of Nice on the Mediterranean Coast. The GPS claimed not to have ever heard of St Tropez and it took about twenty minutes to finally convinnce it that St Tropez really existed -- then it couldn't find the good-sized beaches recommended by the tour books. St Tropez is one of a number of towns/cities bordering upon a large bay -- they all kind of run together for a ways. Very picturesque!
Getting away from the water, the surrounding area that you pass through getting to St Tropez, is mountainous -- covered with lodgepole pines, yellow/red soil peking out and impressive rocky outcrops -- reminded me of a cross between Big Sur in CA, the LA hills/canyons and Colorado -- very, very scenic.
When I reached St Tropez, I just started following signs that said "beaches". Wanted to get away from the "masses" so kept going east a few miles -- then picked a turn at random -- actually took me to one of the ones I had hoped to find -- La Plage de Tahiti -- an east-facing beach outside the bay. Wow, I was impressed!
A beautiful green color near the beach turning into a deep blue further out. It stretched for maybea half mile in either direction from where I was -- went around a point and and may have been longer. Not really what you'd call deserted-- just kind of uninhabited -- saw maybe forty people total on the whole beach. Beautiful white sand with small rolling dunes -- lightly rushing surf (just a few feet off the beach, it dropped-off a foot or two and caused the surf effect) -- and quiet -- no planes, no radios, just the occasional sound of a motorboat in the distance passing by.
Kicked my shoes off, plopped down on an empty section of the beach and spent the next hour just watching the waves, blue sky ans white cloiuds drift by -- the perfect "beach experience"! Occasionally people would walk by, mostly familes with small children, an occasional wet dog happily gripping a piece of wood or a ball in its mouth, a middle-aged man and his young son were trying to fly a kite a ways down on the beach (without much luck, it kept crashing into the dunes).
Could've easily spent the entire day there if I'd been prepared (towel, food, water, a book, sunscreen lotion) -- settled for an hour or so. Splashed in the water, walked around in the surf -- got my Mediterranean Sea "ticket" punched! For me, the water wasn't bad -- to others it must have been a bit chilly (no one else went in the water) -- a few people walked on the packed sand but not in the water. Yep, it was just me and the dogs!
Was starting to get hungry and the breeze picked-up some so decided to call it a day. Stopeped at a boulangerie just outside of St Tropez, got a piece of pizza and sat outside eating it, watching people go by. Pizza here is strange -- they either get the crust right or they get the toppings right but never at the same time. This time, the crust was pretty good but the toppings (cheese, tomatoes, black olives) had an unusual flavor and were really salty (I know, those of you who know me and salt can't believe I just said that!) Even though I'm close to Italy (whre I've heard both good and bad things about their pizza), I'll take a good pizza in the US any day over anything I've had here -- and, yes, I've had enough pizza in different places on this trip to make that "call"!
Tomorrow, I leave the south of France -- glad I came -- don't think I'll be back -- unless it's to chill-out on a deserted beach somewhere away from the crowds -- and head towards Paris.
As many of you know, my original plans were to spend a year and a half over here -- then, with my visa problems, that changed to January 2017, but now, I've decided to return to the States early -- a week from today I should be back in the USA.
I've seen pretty much what I really wanted to see, learned a huge amount about the people of France and the British Isles (had a problem understanding them before I left but now have a much deeper appreciation of why they're the way they are (both personaly and politicaly)-- and they really are very different from who we are in the US), have gotten a little "burned-out with all the electronic problems I've had to deal with here (GPS, cellphones, tv's, washing machines, etc...) and am missing being with a certain person a great deal (oh, I miss "some" of you too!) The time just seems right to come back -- especially for the holidays.
Even though it's only a week away, i still have a number of things I want to see and experience here in France and will continue writing journal entries and taking pictures until I'm back -- posting the photos might have to wait until I'm back in the States -- have about another three to four hundred of them that I haven't had time to deal with.
Tomorrow, my plan is to get in some hiking in a remote area of France called the Luberon -- people have written that it looks much like Colorado and I want to see for myself. There's also another Medieval village involved in the area that I can't pass-up!
The weather has been gorgeous here in the south of France since I've been here -- right now I'm out on the balcony watching the sea with the sun slowly setting -- I'll take this anytime!
