Another beautiful blue sky day, as we take a stroll along the coast heading northwards to the main town of St Aygulf. What that really meant, as the main road pretty much hugs the coast and doesn’t have consistant safe pathways, is that we meandered along the cycle path just above the main road, dipping down and crossing the main road at intervals to pick up a couple of beaches on the way. Firstly Plage de la Corniche Azur, then Plage de Grand Boucharel and just on the outskirts of the town Plage de Pebriere…

A fairly common theme along this section of the coast seems to be small coves with rather course sand and lots of drift wood debris, separated by rocky outcrops, with little opportunity to beach walk as many of them have dog bans and there is no such thing as a coastal path linking them together.

As we arrive in St Aygulf, a small seaside resort comprising largely of spacious holiday homes with a smattering of bars and restaurants at the centre and a large marina….

The main beach at the centre is Plage de la Galiote….

And then across the bridge over the river there is the long stretch of Plage de St Aygulf, fortified by stone groins into little bays for about a mile of unbuilt up land to the river Argens and the town of Frejus beyond….

A very pleasant walk, largely due to the leafy (shaded) cycle path keeping us away from the busy coastal road.

Thoughts of the day:

• With no real prior knowledge, I expected these beaches to be absolutely stunning and though pretty , I feel this is largely due to the blue skies and crystal clear blue waters and mountainous back drop – mmm the outer Hebrides with this warm sun? Yes would probably be ruined by being over run with visitors.
• The section of coast with Cannes, Nice and Monaco are going to take a bit of planning as according to many reviews a lot of the available parking opportunities for vans are prone to being targeted by petty theft when left unattended, so we shall see how I feel as I value my van much more than visiting these cities.

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 0
• Miles walked – 7
• Beaches – 5
• O/N – £22

Another beautiful day and sadly the day we have decided to move on – that is not to say we won’t be back as it has been so peaceful at this Aire and ideally located, but for now, onwards and a short drive to the outskirts of St Tropez.

We find roadside parking on the way into town and decide to not try and get any closer as there is a continuous stream of traffic heading that way. It only takes us about 20 minutes to walk down to the shore and may be another 10 into the old town proper which envelopes the main Marina.

We follow the crowds around the marina checking out the millions of pounds worth of craft moored there…

And then follow the coast line to visit the 3 small beaches – Plage de la Glaye….

Plage de la Ponche….

And on the edge of the town – Plage de la Fontanette….

The beaches themselves are not really very exciting but the beautiful almost tumble down peach houses that surround them are just beautiful.

As I suspected the main old town with it’s Gucci and like designer shops was very busy (the shops themselves not so much maybe the bouncers on the doors is a bit off putting to some?) but as we soon find out it is very easy to loose the crowds by just heading away from the main port and into the myriad of little streets running away from the centre….

Though busy I would agree that it is a stunning little town. We meandered our way back to the van and pressed on the short distance to our next stop – St Maxime….

No where near as busy or indeed as beautiful but nevertheless we enjoyed a lovely walk along the sea front promenade (a lot of the beaches are not dog friendly) with just enough sea breeze to keep us cool and checked out all the beaches on the way….

Plage de Croisette and de Maxim on the way into town….

Plage de Club Nautique and Plage de St Maxime on either side of the bridge in the centre of town….

And finally Plage de Saudan, a rather forgotton little bit of sand on the far side of the marina and town….

It is by now getting incredibly hot and the van was like an oven so we had to wait a while with all the doors open for it to cool down enough to be bearable as we drove the short distance, via a supermarket to our campsite for the next 3 nights at St Aygulf.

To give the van a chance to cool down before we settled in we took a brief walk to check out the 3 beaches in the immediate vicinity – Plages de la Galliarde, des Eclaireurs and de la Galliard Ouest….

The main sandy one and the one immediately outside the site, unfortunately is not dog friendly which is a real shame after being so spoilt last week on Plage de Pampelonne – but I’m sure we will cope.

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 27
• Miles walked – 9
• Beaches – 11
• Food – £25.86
• O/N – £23.12

Yet another beautiful day – this is certainly the best weather I have ever experienced at Easter and we are making the most of it with a couple of hours on the beach and then when it is a bit cooler in late afternoon we took a stroll down to the far end of the beach – Plage de Tahiti (still really part of Plage de Pampelonne)….

On the way back we picked up a bit of shopping before settling for another little while on Plage de Pampelonne…

Before returning to the Aire via the little footbridge….

Hoping that we have left it late enough to catch our little friend the Beaver….

We did just that and took a little video of him heading off into the sunset – which you can see on Instagram as my membership here does not allow videos.

Today’s stats:

• Miles walked – 7
• Beaches – 2
• Groceries – £6.05
• O/N – £20