St Tropez, c'est trop?

Unless you want to gawp at the stars on Pampelonne beach, or break the bank in the swish boutiques, the picturesque quayside is quintessentially St Tropez.

But how much nicer it would be if you could see it from wherever you happened to be standing nearby.

Unfortunately, the sheer size of some of the yachts berthed there gets in the way of what can be a magical sight. Now I know these vessels, and their owners or charter customers, like very much to be seen in all their opulence. But shows of opulence are not always aesthetically pleasing to others.

This khaki/gold monstrosity, registered in George Town, Cayman Islands, may have been a great place to hold a party, with band and singers, on Saturday night. I did not experience the least envy as I walked by, but I did feel I was looking at an eyesore.

There is probably more street credibiity to be had these days in knocking St Tropez, crowded harbour or otherwise.

It often takes an age to get there by car (although on Saturday, so many people were on the French motorways, stuck in the blackest chassé-croisé of the season, that it was a doddle until the evening).

And if you do not care for those boutiques, or recoil from the cost of their wares, a walk around the little streets of the town, and the Place des Lices, does not need to detain you very long.

Knowing that Sarah Ferguson was there at more or less the same time, and that you might even have bumped into Cindy Crawford, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, isn't the same as getting an invite to Puff Daddy's birthday party.

Nor do I recall rubbing shoulders with St Trop's more famous residents - Brigitte Bardot, for example, or (from just along the road at Gassin) Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis - when picking up a couple of sea bass for the barbecue at Géant.

But I have always been quite fond of the place, exploring those narrow lanes and climbing the hill to the cliffs behind the port. St Trop cannot help being pretty, popular and a magnet for the rich and renowned.

Others will doubtless find those giant ocean-going yachts a delight to see, their occupants providing material for intriguing gessing games. And quaysides equal boats, after all.

But this grumpy old Varois-by-adoption would jump for joy if only the mairie could order the larger ones to be confined to the bay, congested as even that is beginning to look. With the quayside slots reserved exclusively for small craft, St Trop would regain all of its former charm.

Comments

[Sarah Hague]

When I was a wee nipper, my parents took us kiddies to France as usual on holiday. We were camping in the south of France. One day we went to St Tropez and wanted to have a picnic, but were lacking a tin-opener for the tinned meat (spam probably).

My dad, who is a northerner, just walked onto one of the mega boats and asked if they had one he could borrow. They did, and said they ate lots of tinned food too...

So.... thank you, to that kind person on a mega boat back in the 1970s who leant a tin-opener to my pa because you saved us from certain starvation...

[Bill Taylor]

I don't altogether understand the significance of the motor-scooter picture. Is it a particularly opulent scooter or could that perhaps be Tom and Katie riding it?
To veer off topic a little (inspired by your shots of crass capitalism), there's an Associated Press story today about left-leaning bloggers pondering the formation of a union and trying to win themselves some health benefits. It rather begs the question: If they come out on strike, whom do they picket?

[Colin Randall]

Quite right Bill. Picture belonged on continuation page whoever was on the scooter.

[Bill Taylor]

It strikes me that this kind of waterborne gin palace spends far more time moored to the dock than actually out at sea. I wonder how many ever venture beyond sight of land. It makes the harbour look a bit like a trailer park in the American midwest or deep south where people live, ostensibly on wheels, but never go anywhere. They just sit there waiting to be hit by a tornado. Very déclassée.
That khaki/gold pimpmobile looks custom-made for Trailer-Trash Barbie: an unauthorized version of the doll (probably still to be found on eBay) marketed under the slogan, "Mah daddy says ah'm the best kisser in the whole county," and which had Mattel contemplating legal action.
I don't suppose St. Tropez gets a lot of tornadoes.

[Tim Sinclair]

What is a continuation page?

[Colin Randall]

Tim: the one you see when you click on the phrase on each posting that starts "Continue reading...."

[Tim Sinclair]

Ah...I don't get those link phrases. I just keep right on scrolling (in Mozilla Firefox) - and it's all there

[Jackie]

Oh St Tropez!
The way you described it I felt that I was really back there again....the endless traffic, the boats (ships or whatever they call them!) and all of lifes pretty people, Pampelone beach, Gassin....*sigh* I so want to be back there again!

Jackie

[suraj]

Good to haer, that