Today we set out from Sisteron in bright but very windy skies. We anticipated a 2-3 hour drive to our next destination in St. Raphael on the Mediterranean so since we set out pretty early, we opted for secondary roads for the second part of our trip. This was a picturesque, windy and windy - that was both interpretations of that word - drive. Our first destination was St. Tropez which has been a hot spot for ever for the rich and famous. Due to the wind, the seas around St. Tropez today were nicely churned up and the only decent photo op came from the opposite side of the bay from St. Tropez.
It was also at this point of the vista to St. Tropez that we stumbled upon a totally nude beach - Whoops!
There were an amazing lack of traveller facilities on this leg of the trip and by the time we reached Frejus, we all needed bathroom breaks while our car finally got a short rest from the challenging roads.
Shortly after 1:00, Emily had found our next accommodations in St. Raphael. This was a private residence in a gated community. We snuck into the compound after a car entered only to discover with the help of a resident that this booking had been cancelled last June. Oh Oh! The only thing we could figure is that I treated this cancellation as I do most e-mails form booking.com - advertising - and deleted it. Booking.com when phoned gave us links to some other places in the area at our price point and left us to fend for ourselves. That meant finding a place with wifi, so off we went to McDonalds for lunch. We weren’t impressed by any of the new choices, so we went to the tourism office which just happened to be located right beside the restaurant. Here we were greeted by a really nice and helpful fellow who said he would help us solve our problem. It took a while, since most people don’t like to rent apartments for less than one week, but finally he found what he thought was a good solution - separate flats next to each other overlooking the Med in the village just west of St. Raphael.
Claude and Carole are in the apartment with the light on in the pic above and we’re in the one to the right of that one. These places are in a development called Cap d’Esterel and they are part of a large complex including a hotel with heated swimming pool. The cancellation turned out to be a blessing as this place had vastly superior views to the one we had initially booked.
Before settling in, Dawn and I went back to St. Rapael to do some grocery shopping at a huge E Leclerc. We later discovered that our new accommodations had a grocery store as part of the complex. We finally sat down for a drink at 7:00 and watched the sun go down and the lights come on to the west of us.
Not really a day I’d like to repeat, but like they say, “All’s well that ends well” and this day definitely ended well!
It was also at this point of the vista to St. Tropez that we stumbled upon a totally nude beach - Whoops!
There were an amazing lack of traveller facilities on this leg of the trip and by the time we reached Frejus, we all needed bathroom breaks while our car finally got a short rest from the challenging roads.
Shortly after 1:00, Emily had found our next accommodations in St. Raphael. This was a private residence in a gated community. We snuck into the compound after a car entered only to discover with the help of a resident that this booking had been cancelled last June. Oh Oh! The only thing we could figure is that I treated this cancellation as I do most e-mails form booking.com - advertising - and deleted it. Booking.com when phoned gave us links to some other places in the area at our price point and left us to fend for ourselves. That meant finding a place with wifi, so off we went to McDonalds for lunch. We weren’t impressed by any of the new choices, so we went to the tourism office which just happened to be located right beside the restaurant. Here we were greeted by a really nice and helpful fellow who said he would help us solve our problem. It took a while, since most people don’t like to rent apartments for less than one week, but finally he found what he thought was a good solution - separate flats next to each other overlooking the Med in the village just west of St. Raphael.
Claude and Carole are in the apartment with the light on in the pic above and we’re in the one to the right of that one. These places are in a development called Cap d’Esterel and they are part of a large complex including a hotel with heated swimming pool. The cancellation turned out to be a blessing as this place had vastly superior views to the one we had initially booked.
Before settling in, Dawn and I went back to St. Rapael to do some grocery shopping at a huge E Leclerc. We later discovered that our new accommodations had a grocery store as part of the complex. We finally sat down for a drink at 7:00 and watched the sun go down and the lights come on to the west of us.
Not really a day I’d like to repeat, but like they say, “All’s well that ends well” and this day definitely ended well!
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