© Lonely Planet ST-TROPEZ TO TOULON 3 PERFECT DAYS DAY 1 // ST-TROPEZ STYLE In St-Tropez mooch around place des Lices ( opposite ) with its marvellous jam-packed market, followed by a coff ee and croissant at Sartre’s Sénequier ( p281 ) and a poetic stroll along the coastal path ( p283 ). Devote the afternoon to art ( p281 ) and shopping (p286 ), and come dusk motor through vineyards to Plage de Gigaro, where Couleurs Jardin ( p289 ) beckons for a beautiful dinner on the sand. DAY 2 // TRAVEL TO EAT This fertile area was created for gourmets: enjoy a luxuriant morning pottering around the hilltop village and market of Ramatuelle ( p287 ), then lunch on grilled fi sh by the sea at Chez Camille ( p288 ) or between vines at Auberge de l’Omède ( p288 ). Drive inland through the Massif des Maures ( p295 ) to taste sweet chestnuts in Collobrières ( p295 ). Dine rustic at La Petite Fontaine ( p296 ) or Auberge de la Môle ( p298 ). If it is winter and truffl es turn you on, delve instead into the Northern Var: meander Aups truffl e market ( p292 ) and dine at Chez Bruno and/or Les Chênes Verts ( p293 ). DAY 3 // A WINE-LOVER’S TRAIL Discover matchless Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) reds of Bandol ( p312 ) or bear southeast to La Londe, where the Route des Vins de la Londe ( p308 ) escorts wine lovers by bike through vineyards. As the sun sinks, sail to Île de Porquerolles ( p300 ) for a romantic dinner amid the largest wine-producing estate on the vine-rich island at luxuriant Mas du Langoustier ( p303 ). Or spend the night afl oat ( p304 ). LONELYPLANET.COM PRESQU’ÎLE DE ST-TROPEZ 275 roofs and an Italianate church tower PRESQU’ÎLE topped by Provençal campanile that so DE ST-TROPEZ charmed pointillist Paul Signac in 1890, arrive by boat. Jutting out into the sea, between the ESSENTIAL INFORMATION Golfe de St-Tropez and the Baie de Cavalaire, is the St-Tropez peninsula. EMERGENCIES // Pôle de Santé (%04 98 12 From swanky St-Tropez on the 53 08; www.ch-saint-tropez.fr) Nearest hospital, 11km northern coast, fi ne-sand beaches of from St-Tropez on D559 in Gassin Police Station buttercream yellow and gold – easily the (%04 94 12 70 00; rue François Sibilli) loveliest on the Côte d’Azur – ring the TOURIST OFFICES // Tourist Offi ce (%08 peninsula. Inland, the fl ower-dressed 92 68 48 28; www.ot-saint-tropez.com; quai Jean Jaurès; hilltop villages of Gassin and Ramatuelle h9.30am-8.30pm Jul & Aug, 9.30am-12.30pm & charm the socks off millions. 2-7pm Apr-Jun, Sep & Oct, 9.30am-12.30pm & 2-6pm Nov-Mar, closed Sun Jan & Nov). ST-TROPEZ EXPLORING ST-TROPEZ pop 5690 Pouting sexpot Brigitte Bardot came to St- PLACE DES LICES // THE LIFE Tropez in the ’50s to star in Et Dieu Créa AND SOUL OF ST-TROPEZ Studded with plane trees, cafés and (when la Femme (And God Created Woman; the market’s not on) pétanque players, 1956) and transformed the peaceful fi sh- this is St-Tropez’s legendary and very ing village overnight into a sizzling jet-set charming central square. Simply sitting favourite. Tropeziens have thrived on on a café pavement terrace watching the their sexy image ever since: at the Vieux world go by or jostling with the crowds at Port, yachts like spaceships jostle for mil- its extravaganza of a twice-weekly market lionaire moorings, and an infi nite number (place des Lices; h8am-1pm Tue & Sat), jam-packed more tourists jostle to admire them. with everything from fruit and veg to an- TO TOULON ST-TROPEZ Yet there is a serene side to this village tique mirrors and fl ip-fl ops, is an integral trampled by 100,000 visitors a day in part of the St-Tropez experience. summer. Out of season the St-Tropez of Artists and intellectuals have met for mesmerising quaint beauty and ‘sardine decades in St-Tropez’s famous Café scales glistening like pearls on the cob- des Arts, now simply called Le Café blestones’ that charmed Guy de Maupas- (%04 94 97 44 69; www.lecafe.fr; place des Lices): sant (1850–93) comes to life: meander don’t confuse it with the newer, green- cobbled lanes in the old fi shing quarter canopied Café des Arts on the corner of of La Ponche, sip pastis at a place des the square. Le Café’s dimly lit historic Lices café, watch old men play pétanque interior with nicotine-coloured ceiling, (boules) beneath plane trees, or walk in dating to 1789, is a sight in itself, as is a solitary splendour from beach to beach cream-oozing slab of tarte tropézienne along the coastal path. (sponge-cake sandwich topped with Whatever the season, if you want to sugar) served by suitably surly waiters on be seduced by the mirage of a brooding its pavement terrace. Aspiring pétanque 17th-century citadel, glowing terracotta (Continued on page 281).