France Part 2

Ok, so my huge mega post wouldn't all fit...so here's the rest. The note about typos from my last post still applies!

Day 5 - Avignon to Cassis, Aug 11

The next morning, after our last lovely breakfast on the terrace, we set off south. We were sad to leave what felt like our home away from home, but excited to continue our adventure and make our way to the coast.

On our way, we stopped at Les Baux des Provence, a small village said to be one of the beautiful in all of France. The village was indeed gorgeous, but we were not prepared for the terrifyingly narrow mountain roads we had to take to get there. Cars (and lots of bikes and motorcycles) were zipping past with barely any room between us on one side, with a sheer drop on the other. Not exactly the relaxing morning drive we were hoping for. So we arrived a bit shaky, though thankfully in one piece, to the base of the village. Cars aren't allowed in the town, so we parked In the very full lot and made our way up the hill. Apparently, word is out about this town because it was massively crowded, so we weren't able to really enjoy a stroll through town to soak on the atmosphere. (In hindsight, we realized it was Saturday, probably didn't help). Instead, we headed up to the very top of the town to check out the ruins of an old chateau. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the ruins are basically entirely outside, in direct sunlight. With highs over 100, we didn't last too long, though we did stay long enough to appreciate the incredible views. After that, we longed to get out of the sun and away from the crowds, and so headed back to our car to continue our journey. 

What was supposed to be an easy hour and a half drive to Cassis took over 3 thanks to some serious traffic. Now we knew what everyone meant when they talked about crazy August traffic in the south of France. Bumper to bumper for miles before each toll and stop and go in heavy congestion everywhere else, we we starting to feel a bit beleaguered.  When we finally arrived in Cassis, however, the view made it all worth it. We settled into our hotel room and soaked in the view of the Mediterranean from our balcony. 

View from our balcony

After catching our breath, we changed into our bathing suits, grabbed a quick lunch at the cafe below our hotel, and went for a dip in the sea. The water was cool and refreshing, especially after the day we'd had. We tried to lay out on the shore, but it was a pebble beach (as I mentioned in my last post, by pebble they really mean rocks) and we couldn't seem to get comfortable, so we decided to enjoy the comfort of the lounge chairs on our balcony instead. It was quite lovely. 

After a while, we showered and changed and strolled down to Cassis harbor where we enjoyed a few beverages, a great pizza dinner (with a huge carafe of wine), and a surprise concert by a rock cover band (on a stage out on the water off the harbor no less) before meandering back to our hotel where we enjoyed one last beverage on the deck of the hotel bar before retiring to our room. I was so happy to hear the sound of the sea, I actually fell asleep on one of the lounge chairs on our balcony for a few hours before making it into bed.

Enjoying some delicious rose at dinner

Our huge carafe of wine

Day 6 - Cassis to Ste-Maxime, Aug 12

The next morning, feeling slightly rough around the edges from our merriment the night before (we were over-served as my dad would say), we made our way down to breakfast on the deck and then headed out for our next destination, hoping an early departure would get us a bit ahead of the traffic. We also opted to take back roads instead of the main highway in hopes of enjoying a more relaxing ride (thank goodness for the avoid tolls option on our GPS!). Our plan worked pretty well and we enjoyed a relatively uneventful 90 minute drive to Ste-Maxime. 

Ste-Maxime is a chill little beach town on St Tropez bay. We checked into our little hotel and headed down to explore the boardwalk and get some lunch, settling on a little cafe right on the beach where it turned out the service was awful, the food was decent, and the view was incredible. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to change into our swimsuits and then hit the beach. The sea was again very refreshing, and this time it was a sand beach (a super hard sand beach, but still a huge upgrade, haha). We enjoyed laying on the beaching, dozing a bit and being entertained by a surprise air show - fighter jet display teams from France and the US put on quite a performance, practicing (as we found out later) for a big show on August 15th to celebrate the anniversary of the liberation of France (at least we think). It was very cool, and little surreal.

Later that evening, we dressed for dinner and hopped on a quick 15 minute ferry over to St. Tropez. On the ferry ride we spotted some of the most ridiculous yachts I've ever seen. Like, beyond huge. Beyond opulent. Just, wow. We spent nearly two hours just strolling through the street, ogling the ridiculously expensive shops, and enjoying the lovely weather. We finally settled into a little restaurant at the edge of the harbor and enjoyed a delicious pasta dinner before hopping back on the ferry and heading back to our little town on the other side of the bay.