San Tropez, France

The first night aboard the Windsurf yacht was a pretty rough one. The boat was rocking so hard all night and we were both feeling preetty ill.... the waves were crashing against the boat and covering our windows! We watched movies pretty much all night. We were wondering what we had gotten ourselves into..

Here is the view from our cabin windows before it got dark and rough:

We were excited to get up the next morning and sleep in the sun on the deck when the waters had calmed down. We arrived in San Tropez in late afternoon and took a little boat in to shore. 

There was a lot to see so we walked around the port and the town and saw the Cathedral and a lot of cool shops. 

Here we are in the square where people play bocci ball

this pigeon was drinking out of the fountain and we (I) thought it was hilarious

Joe got hungry and we found somewhere to eat where we could understand the menu (not at all fluent in french) and sat down.

The Citadel Restaurant

We met some American vacationers who loved to chat and took our picture

Joe's mussels

I felt like I was in this painting:

Cafe Terrace at Night

We walked back to the Port to sit at a bar and watch the people on their fancy yachts. There were so many of them lined up, it was insane. We also watched the people pull up to the club next to us decked out in cocktail attire which is obviously the norm around those parts... we were super tired and headed back to the Windsurf.

The next day we woke up early to take a tour of the inland villages of Provence. A bus drove us to Grimaud, a village that was once owned by the Grimaldi family, for whom it was named. We got to explore the ruins of a medieval castle, which I loved! Here is our guide explaining the history:

our little french guide! I will name him Pierre.

the castle

view from a hole in the castle walls of the city below

Looking over the villages

climbing up to the castle

The 12th-century Romanesque Saint-Michel church, a parochial church with a square clock tower.

they were starting their service as we left and the bells were ringing

I had a DiVinci Code moment when I realized that tons of the shutters and doors in the village were painted a shade of blue and I became obsessed with it. I asked the guide if there was any meaning and he acted confused like he had never noticed it (definitely a cover-up.)

I will spare you all of the pictures I took of it, but trust me - there were a TON

The graveyard in Grimaud, not a bad place to be buried..

Next we drove to Gassin, another charming little village with a special treat for Joe, a map! Our guide explained a lot about local wine making, and said to only buy wines labeled AOC. He also told us about cork trees (which only grew in this certain area) and harvesting them, which greatly intrigued Joe. Apparently there is not as great of a demand for cork stoppers in wine anymore, so the cork is also being used for insulating homes, and making baskets.

he loved it

ahem..

Joe trying to fit through a walkway

buying local wine in a cave-store

Our last village was Ramatuelle, probably my favorite of all. It had a little market going on (it was Sunday morning) and we strolled around the little streets and discovered all kinds of cool hidden surprises.

The bus dropped us back off in San Tropez and we went to eat on the square. It happened to be free-museum day, so we went into L'Annonciade museum of San Tropez to see sculptures, impressionist and pointillism paintings. 

We got some tiramisu flavored gelato and headed back to the Windsurf to get ready for our next destination!