Christmas on the Cote d'Azur Part 2

The Christmas Tree and Pere Noels, post box in Sanary-Sur-Mer

Another day when it has done nothing but rain, in fact, pour, there were supposed to be fireworks tonight in Sanary and some of the neighbouring towns, sadly they were cancelled.  I have been coming here for ten years, in all seasons, I have never seen it rain like this before!

I have spent another day lolling around indoors, I hope there is some respite tomorrow as I still have a few things to do in town tomorrow morning.  A couple of days ago we met up with some friends in Saint Tropez, it was raining, the town was completely deserted... 

I love boats and yachts, one's that include wood, brass and sails, not these floating, plastic gin palaces, this one has 'Don't Touch' written on it, don't worry I would not set foot on it even if you paid me, which ironically is probably the point!

We headed off to hole up in a restaurant, for warmth, wine and pizza.  Love this tree and the chap trying to get his parasol down, at least I think that is what he is doing!

Back in Sanary, Sanary differs from some of it's better known neighbours on the Cote d'Azur because it is vibrant and busy all year round, shopping is always a joy here...

Have to have a rest and a quick aperitif!

Bought some flowers for Belle Mere, could not decide, I like plain white but Belle Mere likes colours, so I bought both.

Fell in love with this dog, sitting on a chair at one of the cafes, he was like a mini whippet, with the most enormous eyes, sporting a very fetching black, woollen, coat.

It's the orange season here, they are everywhere

Roasted chestnuts?

St Tropez On Sale

 

 Last Friday, we arranged to meet some good friends in St Tropez, as we reached the outskirts the traffic was backed up, now I know this is expected in the high summer months but October?  What could possibly be going on?  We noticed that people were parking their cars way outside the town and walking in, undaunted MG continued forth heading into the town center, we drove round a couple of times but all the car parks were full and people were everywhere, MG drove towards the parking du Port and spoke to the parking attendants, luckily they took a shine to MG's car, or was it me batting my eyelashes, after waiting a couple of minutes they opened the barrier and let us through, parking sorted.

Coming into St Tropez

Traffic

We then hotfooted it to the port and settled ourselves in St Tropez's most famous and overpriced cafe Senequier, where we waited for our friends, after phoning them to check on their progress and alert them to the fact that for some mysterious reason St Tropez was chocca and they may have difficulty parking.

Senequier

  Whilst we waited I had fun people watching, The port in St Tropez has to be one of the best people watching places on the planet, especially when it's busy; beautiful fashionably dressed girls in their first bloom of youth, jaded brassy blondes dressed as lambs, chic well heeled ladies, young women with elderly gentlemen (obviously not their Daughters or Granddaughters, MG pointed this out!), hardened St Tropez mariners, posy yachty types, normal people trying to look like somebodies, somebodies trying to look normal, etc. but one thing was apparent the majority of them were carrying a large number of glossy, shopping bags with some of the most famous brands in the world emblazoned on the front.

MG started chatting to three charming ladies sitting next to us all with large numbers of the said shopping bags, they told us exactly what was going on "it's a Grande Braderie" one of the charming ladies told us which in English translates to clearance sale, all the shops are selling off their old stock and bargains are to be found everywhere, one of the charming ladies had purchased a pair of fabulous shoes reduced from 1000 euro's to 150.  Normally I am not into sales, rummaging through piles of clothes in search of a bargain is not my idea of fun, however the shops in St Tropez are particularly nice and it was the first day of the Braderie so a lot of the clothes were neatly hanging outside the shops on rails, our friends arrived and we went for lunch, with full tummies and some fine wine down us we all succumbed and were soon picking through the rails with the best of them, we all made some fabulous purchases and despite the hordes a fine time was had by all.  The Braderie is on every October in St Tropez, my advice is get there early, on the first day.  There really are some fabulous bargains to be had, clothing, shoes and home wares with up to 80% off in some cases.