This was our second weekend of hiring a car and what a difference a week makes - Karl was relaxed and confident driving on the other side of the road and in this car we had a Nav-Man - perfect. Today we were going where Karl's workmates had recommended and also adding in St Tropez - my request!
We loved our rental car - it was pretty racy!
We woke on a very windy Sunday morning and decided to head to Cassis, a quaint little fishing village alongside the world famous callanques that link it to Marseille. Cassis is often described as the best kept secret as it has the quaint feel and great beaches but not the hordes of people that invade the rest of the riviera. The drive to Cassis is beautiful.........................it is close to Marseille and we will probably come back here via the bus numerous times over the summer as it is definitely a place to spend some summer afternoons! Yay!
Our next stop was La Ciotat - another wee village on the coast. Here was a wee market which we were able to explore, tasting cheeses, eating olives and buying a few momentos. It was also our morning tea stop where we were able to sit, relax and watch the locals for a while. A number of cruise ships anchor outside La Ciotat with the tourists popping in for a visit. Thankfully today was not cruisers day!
Then we were off to another beautiful French Riveria town, Le Lavandou - breathtaking! We walked along the golden beaches and found a great restaurant for our lunch. It was time to have escargo and I was keen to have again, Moules Frites (regional speciality) of mussells and fries. Check them out! Karl and I shared some Rose wine - perfect lunch. While paying the bill they also gave you a little sampler of a cocktail of gin/strawberry ice - yumo - we could have settled in for the rest of the day (or week).
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| Rose - perfect! |
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| Escargo for Connor - for sure! |
And for Karl and I too - Loki also tried them - not to bad but we all agreed we had better on our South Pacific Cruise last year.
Hard to see - but can you identify the huge pots of mussells that Loki and I had!
We then headed to St Tropez for an explore, ice-cream and shopping - bliss. There were super yachts galore, very rich looking people; super flash shops and restaurants and insanely a very flash Bentley parked in a no parking zone about to get towed - hilarious! Groovy place and I brought the obligatory "I have been to St Tropez" beach bag - yup tacky and touristy but I really could not resist! This was one place on my "wanna go" list and somewhere I didn't go on my last venture to the French Riviera 20+ years ago!
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| Biggest ice-creams in St Tropez |
At the waters edge - pic of the boys photobombed by the biggest boy of them all!
A couple of pictures of the boats Karl would quite like....................
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| And a mirrored sign I thought I would take a shot of.............. |
What a perfect day - the French Riviera is beautiful with long white sandy beaches, beautiful coves and amazing scenery. Karl likened it to the Corromandel - NZ is just as beautiful and without the crowds! Headed home along with motorway - great roads and home superfast with the motorways having a speedlimit of either 110 or 130 - and four lanes which certainly makes a different with traffic and speed. Home by 8 - time for bed!
Also, figured I should put in a picture of the rental car......nice, small and just perfect for our weekend. Luckily we had full insurance with zero excess as some random hit one of our doors with their doors and made quite a mark - no problem though will full insurance. Karl dropped the car back on Monday morning on his way to work - perfect!
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