kattom

Okay, we have our Provence portion figured out—now for the Cote d’Azur. Can you tell me if this plan is doable? We leave the Le Mas Pomona on a Sunday morning and want to go to l'Isle sur la Sorgue for the market and at least spend several hours there. Then we want to head south to the St. Tropez area for 2 nights. We are thinking about staying in Ste Maxime and taking the ferry across to St. Tropez for visiting. The next day we drive to Cassis and do a boat tour of the Calenques there, drive back to Ste. Maxime, ferry to St. Tropez for dinner and walking around etc. The next morning we leave Ste. Maxime for the Nice area. Question #1—Will we have enough time on Sunday to both do the market and have a pleasant drive to St Tropez/Ste. Maxime? Question #2 Would be be better off staying closer in to ST. Tropez? Question #3: Will we have time to do the Cassis thing as I describe? Any of your thoughts and suggestions will be appreciated

Sallygirl42

What time of year are you going? Traffic can be brutal on the roads in the area in the summer months.

HappyTrvlr

Consider staying in Ramateulle, outside of St-Tropez, a hilltop town with views of the Mediterranean, and nice sandy beaches nearby. When we left there and arrived in St-Paul de Vence the hotel asked us why we had left paradise(Ramateulle.)

zootsi

We stayed in St. Maxime a few months ago - much preferred it to St Tropez. They are actually pretty close, perhaps an 8 mile drive. I don't see any need to take a ferry (I don't remember seeing one in St Maxime).
As for traffic, we were there in early October (still beach weather!), and St. Maxime was fine, but approaching St. Tropez got a little hectic.

kattom

Our dates for this area will be September 21, 22, 23. We are hoping to miss much of the major crowds but realize it will still be busy. We don't want to stay anywhere less than two nights so we were hoping San Tropez/Ste. Maxime would allow us to enjoy the western portion before heading east to Nice. I will definitely check out Ramateulle too. (Thanks for that idea) I have heard back from Hotel Mouillage and Hotel Les Capucines in St. Tropez as far as having availability in our price range--any more thoughts?

StuDudley

We've visited St Tropez may times all throughout September - perhaps 5 weeks worth of trips, staying anywhere from 3 days to 2 1/2 weeks at a time. I don't think you will have any traffic problems in late Sept - the crowds thin about mid Sept. I would definately stay IN St Tropez - it's best in the early morning & late afternoon when the day trippers are not there. Use mid day to visit Ramatuelle, Gassin, Grimaud, Bormes, etc. On the drive down from Provence, don't arrive in St Tropez anytime before about 5:00 and take the scenic D558 from Le Luc through La Garde Freinet (visit) to get there. St Tropez has a very nice market on Tuesday - and it sound's like you might be able it visit then.

I would strongly urge to re-arrange your trip a tad. From Provence, visit Cassis & the Calenques on the way to St Tropez. Like I mentioned, you really don't want to get to St Trop before 5, so use Sunday to visit Cassis. Monday visit St Tropez in the morning and Gassin, Ramatouelle, Bormes mid day, and St Tropez in the evening. I would not visit Ste Maxime - not that interesting IMO (we stayed there once). On Tues hit the market in St Tropez, then off to Nice.

Do you have my 27 page Provence & Cote d'Azur itinerary? It obviously has a lot more info about St Tropez, Cassis, etc than I can post here. E-mail me at [email protected] if you want a copy.

Stu Dudley

kattom

Thanks Stu...you continue to offer good advice each step of my plan. And yes, I do have your guide. Thanks again. So do you think we have time to do both the market in I'sle sur la Sorgue before we head to Cassis? If we go that way I would really like to do the boat trip of the Calenques because the photos look so beautiful (assuming the weather that day is good). Will we have time to do the market, the boat trip and then arrive in San Tropez without trying to do too much in one day?

StuDudley

Get to the l'Isle sur la Sorgue market at 8am. You'll be able to park the car pretty close to the market at that time (good position for a getaway). Walk towards the Church & observe the vendors setting up their stuff - it'w interesing to watch them. Have a coffee & croissant at one of the many cafes next to the church (which is also the location of the tourist office). At 8:45 hit the market - visit the section along the water first - it gets way too crowded as the day progresses. Work your way around back to the church, then back to the area by the water wheel where the Brocante is set up - it's next to the main traffic road. I think if you start at 8:45, you'll be finished/exhausted by 10:30 unless 1 or more of you is a serious antique shopper. Pick up a slice or two of pizza to have on the road for lunch. Leave by 11:00, and you should get to Cassis by 12:30. Traffic should be light on a Sunday, but parking is very difficult in Cassis - and I'm guessing that it's especially bad on a Sunday. Allocate 45 mins to get lost in Cassis, finally find a lot or place to park, and then get to the center of town where the bosts depart. I don't know if you can make reservations or not. We didn't in mid June, but we took the first trip in the morning & got there 30 mins before the ticket booth opened up (we stayed overnight the night before). Buy your tickets, then wander around Cassis a bit. If you catch a tour at 2:00, it should be over around 3:15 if you take the "mid" 65 min tour (that's what we took). Wander around Cassis some more till 4, then depart for St Tropez. You should get to St Tropez around 6, which is a perfect time to arrive. A few days before this day, make reservations at La Ponche for 8:30 & have a nice leisurely dinner with views of the gulf of St Tropez & some people watching.

Stu Dudley

kattom

Thanks again Stu...That's sounds like an excellent plan. I will find out if I can make reservations in advance for the boat tour but will allow for the drive time and looking for parking spaces. I think on one of your posts it said that you usually stay at the Hotel Des Lices in St. Tropez--is that right? I have an email into them for prices but the only prices in our price range would be in the area called "entrance" on their web page. I assume that means on the street right? Is it really noisy? If I can't get a decent price out of Des Lices, what do you think of Hotel Mouillage or Hotel Les Capucines? Hotel Sube has somewhat comparable prices but no parking. Decisions, decisions....

StuDudley

When we stay in St Tropez for 1 week or longer we stay at an apartment. For our first half-dozen trips to St Tropez we stayed at a hotel that is not longer in operation. In '06 I think we got the least expensive room at des Lices & it was 1 story up & facing the parking lot & was very quite & small. I'm pretty sure there are no rooms on the street level.

La Sube is right in the center of the noisest part of St Tropez. Mouillage is not in as good of a loaction as Lices, but would be 'workable" - you could walk to town OK. Capucines is farther away & the walk to town may be too far & not that pleasant - but certainly closer and better than Ste Maxime.

I think Lices is closed for the season now, and when we booked them this time of year in '06 they really did not answer their e-mails. FAX them, or call them. There were several other posters last year who complained about them being hard to get ahold of.

Stu Dudley

sglass

Lucky you! What an amazing trip you have planned. When we went to Cassis last summer (mid- July) the calanques boat tours would not let us make a reservation even the day before, at least in person. It was pretty low- tech...a couple booths that didn't open until later in the morning anyway. We did all of them, and it was beautiful, but I think if you just "did" the shortest version you would get a sense of the geology if your time becomes limited- so don't worry if you need to do that- the last three or four it was hard to justify calling the little inlets "calanques" anymore!!!There are oodles of cafes lining the harbor. Hope this helps, too!