The positive thing to say about the view you see above of the harbourfront at Saint Tropez is that if all, or most, of the giant yachts are absent, it must be because they have been hired and are doing their day jobs.
But I have never seen the town so quiet on a Sunday afternoon in August. Indeed, I cannot recall seeing the place so quiet on any previous visit from early spring to late autumn.
A sensible way of visiting St Tropez is to wait until late afternoon, when early birds are beginning to leave in flocks and you can be fairly sure of finding a car park space relatively easily on the port.
There was no need on Sunday.
I encountered little traffic coming in for lunch, could have arrived at the restaurant without a booking, so many of the tables being unoccupied, and then found the streets and harbour as close to deserted at St Tropez is ever likely to be in mid-afternoon.
"It has been quiet for a while," I was told at the restaurant. "Lots of people have already gone back from their holidays."
People say the season got off to an unexpectedly bad start down here in the south because of delays to departure caused by baccalauréat examination mix-ups (and worse) and because the weather was so unseasonal.
Well, there are no such excuses now; school does not resume until next week and we are in the middle of a blistering heatwave. The supermarkets still seem busy though ours has already closed the annexe where cold drinks are displayed and reverted to a much more most selection on the main shelves; those forecasts that people would still take holidays but watch their centimes and rarely go out may have come true.
But how nice to be able to see one of my favourite old resorts without having to fight for every inch of space.
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