Cote d'Azur Holidays 2001 - Travelogue |
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Costa Azahar: Peñiscola
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Because the report of the Côte d'Azur - holidays would've been to long (about 50 photos) I made the report for the Monacotrip seperately.
Cote d'Azur Holidays - Les Issambres
On the streets on the coast getting on in not very well. There is always much traffic and you can only drive slowly with stop and go. This is why I prefer the expensive motorway to get somewhere. Les Issambres itselves is very small and in the evenings nearly dead. The beaches there are a mixture of fine sand and big stones and are really small, too. You won't get a real beachfeeling like in Spain over there but anyway we prefered to do some sightseeing in this holidays. For a first impression here are some pictures from Les Issambres and it's surroundings. View from our apartment to the left ...
and to the right
View from the top of the Col de Bougnon, above "Les Hameau"
Cannes After the seperately told trip to Monaco our second trip led us to Cannes. The weather was streaky this day and so there were many people walking and driving around (it was no beach-weather). Having left the motorway it took us 45 min to find somewhere to park the car near the Croisette. In former times I didn't really recognize what a big town Cannes is (70,000 inh.) but seeing so many people walking and driving around over there I noticed it very quickly. The expensive privat beaches at the famous Croisette have been empty because of the missing sunshine and so all people have been down on the streets. There are some free beaches, too but these have also been empty. It's really interesting to take a look at the expensive hotels, to walk down the Croisette or just saunter in the main shopping lane. Nevertheless Cannes is more like a town than a place for recovery. Relaxing seems not to be easy in the centre because there's so much going on. To relax you better go to the quarter called La Bocca, were it is a little bit less busy and you've got some free beaches, too. Finally I think Cannes is worth a trip or may be living in it's surroundings for a holiday because there's surely much to discover but if you live something else you don't have to visit it again and again. Christine at the Croisette with exclusive beaches, bay and port in the background
The Croisette
Prices on the beach (for 1 day: entrance 13 €/$, sunshade/towel each 5 €/$, complete meal 22 €/$)
Free beach with exclusive hotels in it's back
In the lanes of Cannes
Le Grand Cañon du Verdon This impressing canyon (gorge) was our next destination. Situated in the interior the Grand Cañoncan only be reached by using highways. We decided to choose the southern route (Corniche Sublime) of the canyon, to enjoy the partly breathtaking views from the up to 700 m straight down falling rocks. There are many places where you can stop take a look down the canyon and see the calmly flowing river Verdon. There are imposing views again and again and so I had to take pictures many times. Here are some of them:
On our way we passed europes highest bridge for bungeejumping were you can jump one time for about 95 €/$. We still didn't recognize the bunjee case
Keep on jumping ...
"wow"
Sometime we reached the end or better the beginning of the canyon. The beginning of the canyon
The reservoir Lac de St. Croix lies close to the Cañon
This trip was really worth it and it was not so full of people like on the coast, so we could drive on much faster. St. Tropez ... we visited two times. For the first time the weather was cloudy and rainy. In spite of the bad weather we had to stop about 2 km in front of the town because of a traffic jam that lasted till the centre. Sometime we turned right to see the famous caribean beaches Plage de Tahiti and Plage de Pampelonne. But finally at the end of the roads we had to pay for parking (4 €/$) just to see a beach on a rainy day. Because there was no other chance for parking we went to the Cap Camarat. It's situated some km's more in the south but the weather became to bad for any nice pictures. Rainy weather at the beautiful beaches of St. Tropez
There at Cap Camarat it's good for hiking but for that we didn't wear the right shoes. So we drove back the bad and narrow street and finally reached the centre of St. Tropez. After an hour we decided to return to St. Tropez another day with better weather. On our way home we crossed the nice villages Ramatuelle and Gassin where you partly have a wonderful view to the Sea. St. Tropez for the second time ... we visited some days later. We reached it at half past three and so nearly had no traffic jam. It took us only 15 min. to get from the entrance of the village to the large parking (500-1,000 places) at the port. You can get enter and leave the parking in three lanes but only a few hundret meters behind the parking you have to leave the village on one lane whats the reason for another daily traffic jam.I (45 min / 3 km). But let's talk about St. Tropez. There are many nice lanes, a port with some impressing yachtings which are lying so close to the street, that you can nearly touch them. In july/august it's really full with people over there but in september it was okay. In this big village you feel really pleasant, because there's not much traffic and the mayor seems to try to keep everything okay. We enjoyed it there and you also have a beautiful view on the Golf of St. Tropez. In the port; from the yacht directly into the café
houses with shops and restaurants next to the port
In the port having bad ...
and fine weather
Lane in St. Tropez
I think the best pictures of the port can be taken from the water. St. Tropez is really worth to be seen, has got beautiful lanes and you can even see some rich people in the cafés in this old village. But you have to take enough time for the traffic jams into consideration (in and out of the village).
Other interesting things 1. The nice village Grimaud, between St. Maxime and St. Tropez, only few kilometers from the Sea, we reached some day in the evening, what was to late to take some sunny pictures there. What a pity. 2. Port Grimaud, has got some nice houses but I was just getting dark when we went there. Port Grimaud
3. Antibes, is a town with 40,000 inhabitants between Nice and Cannes and has got a pretty old town. Close to it you can find some really bathing-villages, Golfe-Juan and Juan-les-Pins with beautiful beaches. Besides there's a great view to the bay of Nice from the Cap d'Antibes. Unfortunately there's much traffic on the way from the motorway to the coast so that it takes some time to get there. In the old town of Antibes
4. Nice and the town of perfume, Grasse we didn't see. Also the Esterel-mountains and the mountains of the Maures. There was not enough time. 5. Our trip to the pretty villages in the mountains in the back of Monaco and the visits of Roquebrune and Menton, didn't really take place because of a very rainy weather. My opinion: 1. The Côte d'Azur surely has to be seen. There's so much to see that you've to decide for some of the destinations that you think are best. Only lying on the beach I wouldn't really do, because there's so much to see, but you can combine beach and trips. 2. Driving a car is not so funny because there's always very much traffic near the towns an the coast. 3. Food is more expensive than in Germany. The best supermarkets for going shopping cheap are the big shopping centres of Intermarche, Geant or especially Carrefour.
Translated 11.11.2001
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