Saint-Tropez and a trip down memory lane for me
Saturday 10 June – about an hour’s drive from Agay and we were in Saint -Tropez. For a number of years we owned a house in the village of Gassin which is located just behind Saint-Tropez and which I inherited in my settlement. My last visit here was in 2012 when, after selling the property, I went to empty the house of furniture and sell the cars. I’d always loved Saint-Tropez – my first visit was in 1975 when it was still revelling in it’s “jet set 1960’s chic and glamorous image” – think convertible cars, Brigitte Bardot, Johnny Halliday, Sylvie Vartan, beach clubs - and my 2012 visit had been a very upsetting one saying goodbye to this glorious place.
So with some years having passed, it seemed only right to add in one night on this trip for happy visit for old time’s sake. And what a wonderful 36 hours it was! I had a list of places to visit which I was determined to tick off! First stop was a supermarket! Yes, you read that correctly….but this was not just any old supermarket it was the Casino (formerly called Géant) hypermarket located at La Foux on the entrance to St Tropez where I spent plenty of hours over the years food shopping for the many visitors we had when we lived there. It’s a brilliant shop which stocks the very best of all things provençal as well as anything you would possibly need in your home. It was always great having this so close to us when we lived there as you could always rely on being able to buy everything you wanted. On my tiny list was some salads, specifically celeriac remoulade and macédoine de legumes– two salads I always used to buy and loved. We bought this and some paté and apricot tarts for our lunch. (To be honest, I could have spent the afternoon in there browsing through all the household items, lots in blue and yellow, the colours from this area, but I don’t think Geoff had an afternoon in a hypermarket high on his list of things to do for his day in Saint-Tro so we drove into the town and down to its famous port where we parked the car and indulged in our Casino treats!
Saint-Tropez’s Vieux Port (old port) is one of its most popular attractions and we were thrilled that the accommodation we had booked was just around the back of it in a little cobbled alleyway. The port is surrounded by fishing boats, luxurious yachts, colourful houses and many cafés and restaurants with outdoor terraces. The good news was that there was a yacht race about to take place, the Rolex Giraglia, a 241 nautical mile race which starts next Wednesday and ends in San Remo in Italy, and the yachts were starting to gather in the port which was a far more welcoming sight than the sterns of the big “gin palaces” facing into the port with their posing and preening guests which are normally resident there!
Unfortunately the weather on both the coast of Spain and France has been unusually wet (global warming again!) for the last few weeks with some thunderstorms in the afternoons and as it had clouded over considerably, we thought that it might be a good time to go and visit my old house. It was located in the Golf de Gassin, a beautiful private resort of houses nestled amongst the stunning greenery and rolling hills amidst an 18-hole golf course designed by Gary Player. I wasn’t sure whether we were going to be able to get past security but lo and behold, we drove up and the guard just lifted up the barrier, I think he assumed we lived there. Off we drove to have a look at 14 rue de Chantilly but I was a little disappointed as the very provençal colours of terracotta with green shutters and fence, had been replaced with a stark white house with grey shutters – very boring indeed! Anyway, no sooner had we whipped off a photo or two than the security guard drove up frantically behind us to ask what we were looking for – I told him about having previously owned the house and wanting to just take another peek as we were in the area and that seemed to appease him, although he did say we had to leave and tailgated us all the way back to the exit! Number 2 on the list ticked off!
Next stop, lunch at Le Club 55 – an iconic part of the folklore of Saint-Tropez! Situated in the middle of the famous Pampelonne Beach, it is a place to see and be seen. Bernaud de Colmont, the father of Patrice, who is the current owner of Club 55, built three beach cottages for his family here in 1955. The film crew of Brigitte Bardot’s first film “And God Created Woman” asked to book the huts whilst filming, and Brigitte together with her husband at the time, Roger Vadim, continued to visit the beach shack and put the place on the map. Overgrown bamboo paths pave the way to the club with its outdoor dining, white chairs and tables with blue tablecloths on the sand, a visit to Saint-Tropez is not complete without a visit here. We were lucky enough to get a table and were duly seated with food and wine on the table when the heavens opened! Fortunately, we were safely ensconced under the canvas and continued to enjoy our meal whilst we watched all the guests with the non-covered tables rush around trying to avoid getting drenched.
Our tasty late lunch finished, the rain easing off– and number 3 ticked off the list, we left and made our way to Gassin village behind where our house was, and known as “one of the most beautiful villages of France”. It’s a medieval village dating back to 1190 and perched 200 metres above sea level giving a panoramic view of the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, the Gulf of Grimaud and the Bay of Cavalaire to the Islands of Hyères. Sadly the weather had closed in a little bit so after a few grey photographs we decided to return tomorrow and made our way back into town.
Well, by the time we got back, parked the car, popped into our Air BnB to grab a jacket, the clouds had disappeared and the sunshine returned so we headed off to the Hotel Byblos, the legendary palace of the French Riviera and where we used to stay before we bought the house. An aperitif at the Lounge-Bar “B” which is situated next to the magical setting of the swimming pool and the different shades of terracotta buildings of the hotel (and which we copied for our first renovation of our family home in Portland Road in 1991!) – it was wonderful sitting in the evening sunshine. There is a nightclub here called Les Caves du Roy and we had a quick check of the champagne menu outside and did notice a rather large bottle of champagne to be had for the cool price of Euros 180,000 – that’s NZ$ 300,000 – we declined! Number 4 off the list.
A walk back to the port which was now glorious, the sunset colours across all those gorgeous terracotta and yellow buildings, the sailors preparing their yachts for the race, the shops all now open and buzzing, crowds coming out for pre-dinner drinks, the atmosphere was fabulous – Saint-Tropez at its very best.
Sunday morning and it was clear skies and sunny, Geoff headed down to the little beach near our apartment for a quick swim before we headed off to knock off Number 5 on our list – breakfast at Café Senequier – the cardinal (in colour too) point on the Vieux Port since 1930 – we snagged a prime seat right at the front and enjoyed our croissants and coffee whilst watching the sailors sort out sails and organise their yachts. A little bit of shopping to be done – just had to, and even a bottle of gin with the most fabulous label - see photo below.
We checked out of our apartment and as it was such a stunnig day we decided to return to Gassin to enjoy the view in the sunshine and find somewhere for lunch. It was stunning up there, clear skies and blue seas, so we were happy we returned and I retook all the photographs from the previous day which looked a heck of a lot better!
Now let’s talk about lunch, the beautiful hand painted plates drew me in. ……and soon we were sitting at a table on the hilltop terrace in the shade of the hackberry trees at Bello Vista – a veritable garden of scents, flowers and provençal flavours for our lunch. I can’t describe how delicious it was – the presentation and the taste were exquisite – all washed down with a local rosé wine. Number 6 done.
And that was it – we drove out of Saint-Tropez and Gassin with me feeling complete and in a far more upbeat frame of mind than my previous exit in 2012!