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A life less complicated

Featured / freedombird / 13 Comments

Having completed a large chunk of the British coastline and visited 1467 beaches on the way, ventured into the unknown, crossing the English Channel for the first time and seeing what the coastline of France has to offer and adding a further 459 beaches to our tally, we are off again. This time, as a complete change we are on the pursuit of stunning scenery and again crossing the channel and meandering down the core of Western Europe to see what we can see…

If you would like to see our earlier journeys around the UK, they have loosely been grouped together by location and you can find the links below.

NB some of the links below are not yet working properly as it is a work in progress….

Beach Guides:

To catch up with our earlier adventures in:

  1. North coast of Cornwall from 5th October 2017 to 11th February 2018 –   Freedombird in Cornwall
  2. Back in Cornwall at various times to complete the coastline – Freedombird back in Cornwall
  3. North coast of Devon from 11th February to 19th March 2018 – Freedombird in North Devon
  4. Somerset from 19th March to 29th April 2018 – Freedombird in Somerset
  5. South Wales coast from 29th April to 14th August 2018 – Freedombird in South Wales
  6. West and North Wales coast from 14th August to 21st October 2018 – Freedombird in West and North Wales
  7. North West England from 21st October to 26th November 2018 and 27th January to 4th February 2019 – Freedombird in North West England
  8. Cumbria from 27th January to 5th April 2019 – Freedombird in Cumbria
  9. South Coast of Scotland from 5th April to 25th May 2019 – Freedombird on the South Coast of Scotland
  10. West Coast of Southern Scotland from 26th May to 17th July 2019 – Freedombird on the West Coast of Southern Scotland
  11. Edinburgh and surrounding area from 18th July to 30th July 2019 – Freedombird in Edinburgh and surrounding beaches
  12. East Coast of Southern Scotland from 28th July to 15th September 2019 – Freedombird on the East Coast of Southern Scotland
  13. North East England from 12th September to 20th November 2019 – Freedombird in the North East of England
  14. Yorkshire from 14th January to 22nd February 2020 – Fredombird in Yorkshire
  15. Lincolnshire from 23rd February to 13th March 2020 – Freedombird in Lincolnshire
  16. Norfolk and Suffolk from 15th to 24th March 2020 and 28th June to 18th July 2025 – Freedombird in Norfolk and Suffolk
  17. Inland England on various dates travelling through – Freedombird in inland England
  18. West Coast of Northern Scotland Part 1 from 11th September to 14th October 2024 – Freedombird on the West Coast of Northern Scotland Part 1
  19. North Coast of Scotland and the Orkneys from 15th to 27th October 2024 – Freedombird on the North Coast of Scotland and the Orkneys
  20. East Coast of Northern Scotland Part 1 from 28th October to 15th November 2024 – Freedombird on the East Coast of Northern Scotland Part 1
  21. In the Highlands of Scotland from 15th to 26th November 2024 and 10th to 21st June 2025 – Freedombird in the Highlands
  22. West Coast of Northern Scotland Part 2 from 8th to 17th April and 31st May to 5th June 2025 – Freedombird on the West Coast of Northern Scotland Part 2
  23. Outer Hebrides Part 1 from 22nd April to 12th May 2025 – Freedombird in the Outer Hebrides Part 1
  24. Outer Hebrides Part 2 from 10th May to 30th May 2025 – Freedombird in the Outer Hebrides Part 2
  25. East Coast of Northern Scotland Part 2 from 15th to 18th June 2025 – Freedombird on the East Coast of Northern Scotland Part 2
  26. North and West Coast of France from 11th September to 7th December 2025 – Freedombird on the North and West Coast of France

Tuesday 7th April 2026 – St Tropez, St Maxime and on to St Aygulf…

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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

Monday 6th April 2026 – another day on Plage de Pampelonne…

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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

Sunday 5th April 2026 – a lazy Easter Sunday with a bonus bit of Beaver watching….

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Much the same as yesterday we spent a glorious few hours on the beach….

On the last photo you can see Phare de Camarat perched on top of the headland. Today we tried to negotiate our way around the various vineyards in an attempt to walk up to Ramatuelle but without much success as we kept ending up back on the road network which was too busy and without pavements to venture any further, so instead we took a walk along the now quieter beach (not that it was ever busy busy at this end) and were rewarded with a sighting of our Beaver friend from the other day…

He was quite content snacking or having a good wash maybe in the early evening sun.

Thoughts of the day:

  • I have to admit to enjoying this much slower pace of life and have decided that whenever I find a good location and the weather is kind then we shall slow down.
  • This is such a busy stretch of coastline that I suspect coastal retreats such as this will probably (and indeed I have looked) be few and far between and certainly the next few stops look like they may well need to be further in land.

Today’s stats:

  • Miles walked – 5
  • Beaches – 1
  • O/N – £20

Saturday 4th April 2026 – a walk up to the Phare du Camarat….

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At the risk of sounding a little boring, it was yet another beautiful day here by Plage de Pampelonne….

All the big guns were out to play over the Easter weekend with various gin palaces arriving in the bay and shuttling over to the rather expensive and in some cases quite elitist beach restaurants and bars (though we are at the quieter end of the beach) and plenty of other craft scudding across the bay. I haven’t seen many people braving the rather chilly waters just plenty of paddlers like me and I’m not sure how good these waters are for swimming as the beach seems to shelve quite dramatically. Anyhow we spent a pleasant few hours on the beach just watching and in Tilly’s case, collecting driftwood and creating a little burrow to lie in, enjoying the cooler sand underneath, before returning to the van for something to eat and then heading back out in the cooler late afternoon sunshine for a walk up to Phare de Camarat….

It was a pleasant walk up a mostly leafy lane, having initially walked around the edge of rows and rows of vines….

It was lovely to be walking and surrounded by wild french lavender, though surprisingly not as fragrant as I would have expected….

Just beyond the lighthouse was a viewing point affording spectacular birdseye view of Bonne Terrasse and Plage de Camarat and then beyond to Plage de Pampelonne with snow capped mountains in the far distance – a truly beautiful and peaceful walk….

Today’s stats;

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

Friday 3rd April 2026 – a lazy day on Plage de Pampelonne…

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Another cracking day, may even have hit 20 + degrees – not too hot but very agreeable! Even did some hand washing which dried beautifully outside – I could quite get used to this life and it would certainly be too hot to be travelling from place to place.

We did venture out for a bit of a walk to one of the holiday resorts about a mile further down the beach which had a very well stocked supermarket for a few essential supplies – ie cold drinks! But mostly just enjoyed the beach, finding a nice quiet spot (I think actually on the naturist section which is near to where the Aire is) and Tilly was quiet content collecting bits of driftwood and occasionally wanting them thrown.

As the sun was setting we ventured out some more and after an unsuccessful visit to the stream to spot any wildlife – just a couple of ducks….

we headed down for an evening stroll along the beach…

Almost deserted apart from a couple of fishermen.

Wandering back around the Aire to see if there are any other Brits around – there aren’t….

Today’s stats:

  • Miles driven – 0
  • Miles walked – 5
  • Beaches – 1
  • O/N – £20