Thursday on the Cote d'Azur

Today Penny and Ivan spent the day with one of Ivan's old friends and his wife, who coincidentally were vacationing in the Cote d'Azur. Small world! So...don't look for any photos of them today. Sorry Dan and Lizzie.

Rita and I again hired a driver -- the same company as yesterday, but a maniac driver...definitely a white-knuckle day! We headed to St. Tropez, and encountered heavy traffic on the only road there. Our driver dropped us off at St. Maxime harbor, and we caught a boat across the bay to St. Tropez. There were many multi-million dollar yachts in St. Tropez harbor and, for that matter, everywhere we went today (other than the hill towns). St. Tropez also had a lot of artists on the wharf, and many shops and eateries both by the water and in the old town itself.

Our driver caught up with us in St. Tropez, and we walked around the city, followed by a leasurely lunch (is there any other kind in France?) at a restaurant on the wharf. Following lunch, we headed to Ramatuelle, an isolated village overlooking the gulf of St. Tropez, set among vineyards, with a stop at a vineyard for a tasting...not worth repeating the name of the winery, for fear that someone might actually order it sometime. We didn't stop at Ramatuelle, a we didn't think we had time.

Next on the tour was Gassin, a hilltop walled city that had some restaurants that our guide said were quite excellent. (Of course, this is the same guide that told us how great the wine was at the winery we visited.) There were great views of the gulf of St. Tropez from here.

Time was getting away from us, and we decided to scrap Cannes, but visit the old walled city of Antibes, a port town on the way back to Nice. It had a Picasso Museum which, unfortunately, was closed for the day when we arrived. Then it was on to Nice via the road that ran along the Mediterranean, with great views all the way.

We had dinner at the same restaurant where we ate lunch on Monday...a nice place right on the beach, followed by a stroll back to the hotel and preparations for leaving on the next leg of our trip tomorrow.