Autumn 2019

Ramatuelle - 15 September 2019

Had a swim before breakfast and came to find a film crew wanted the carpark. We finally ended up in a paid aire very close to the beach at Ramatuelle. The beach is about 2 miles long and is used by Saint Tropez, we were at the poor end by the look of the boats moored.

15 September

My husband cooked last night, so worthy of a mention! We’d been shopping earlier - so had a pizza for tea, sitting out with our rum and coke, looking out over the lovely red rocks and sea with the sun going down. Then watched a full moon rising. This is what it’s all about!

Yes, at last - a good night’s sleep! No youths, no loud music - heard the occasional ‘kev’ squealing around the corners - waited for the crash - but luckily didn’t happen.

This morning we went for a swim - was beautiful. The photos make it look almost like sunset, not sure it was even sunrise as it was already about 8am! Tintin took Mum’s float which gave him confidence to swim out with me. It’s so warm!

There were unofficial signs where we were parked which sprung up overnight, or early morning. In summary, they were reserving the parking space so people could do filming. We watched them set up with a huge professional drone, and decided to move on without showering to get out of the way.

Tintin was driving today. Drove for about an hour in order to service Dave. Arrived at the Casino supermarket, only to realize the services had been withdrawn! Back to the drawing board. Popped into the supermarket for bread - that seemed to take for ages - the self service checkouts wouldn’t accept cash - and loads of people doing shopping on Sunday morning.

Tintin then drove for another 90 minutes, past Saint Raphaël, Frèjus, Les Issambres, Sainte-Maxime, tantalizingly close to St Tropez, and arrived at our first paid Aire of the tour at Ramatuelle (€11.32 per night). The drive felt nice, the areas we drove through had a much more laid back, holiday resort feel about them than Cannes.

The Aire is really our idea of - yuk do we have to - but we needed services - and around here they are few and far between. There are 130 pitches! Walked around, only saw one other English van! At least tomorrow when we leave, we know we’re good for another three days.

Not much to report. Walked to the beach which is about three minutes away! Tintin reckons it’s about 2 miles long! Read our books, and went for another swim. Soothed the blasted mossie bites for a while. I complain a lot about them, but I (along with my brother and Mum) do seem to suffer a bigger reaction than others. I hate to say it, but it’s almost not refreshing swimming here - fingers get crinkly like after a warm bath! It’s been overcast for a lot of the day - which is perfect for us! Still been about 30°.

Back to Dave, sat out for a while whilst the water heated for a shower. Bonus of the day, a beautiful little cat came to see us. No idea who ‘she’ belongs too. Very friendly, so can’t be feral? Sat on me, and loved attention, even came into Dave. Later on, I gave her some ham, she seemed starving and ate a whole slice. Probably the wrong thing to do...