We came here purely by accident but we are pleased we did. We were supposed to be going to Cassis & then La Ciotat but Cassis is notoriously difficult to get into and La Ciotat didn’t respond to our email, our vhf calls or even the telephone when we were sat outside the Capitainerie waiting no one came. We then had an almost major catastrophe because we lost both engines whilst in the marina in a strong northerly wind and were fast heading for a number of very lovely super yachts. Luckily after a reboot they both started just in time 😱😱. Just a reminder that you should never ever be complacent on a boat.

Anyway we gave up at La Ciotat and came here instead, we are officially on the Cote d’Azure now & it’s lovely. The wind has finally dropped, the sky is blue, the temperature is perfect 28/29 degrees, the seas are turqoise & we like it here a lot. There’s not much to see or do here but sometimes that’s just nice. The small daily market meant we could top up our cheese & fruit & veg stocks, we shopped at the lovely butcher & fishmonger in the town for food for the next few days because we are going to be anchoring again from tomorrow - yipppeee.

Our journey here was calm & mostly easy, we passed by Marseilles & some lovely islands. The geology was spectacular again after the relative flat of the stretch up to and around the Carmargue so beautiful cliffs to see again. My main observation however is that we never see dolphins in French waters. We saw lots in Spain almost every trip - all around the coast & even up to the French border but have not seen one single dolphin in France, not in the channel, not on the Atlantic coast & so far not on the south coast - odd I think!!

Tomorrow we are off to the isles de Hyeres starting with Porquerolles where we will anchor again in turquoise waters & I will be swimming & paddle boarding in the cooler seas & Andrew might join me 🥶.

One blissful day here at anchor in the Anse du Bon Renaud on this paradise island. Clear seas, blue skies, white beaches, green island with no cars, just lots of bikes, walking trails & a small village. I have been swimming & paddle boarding, we have explored on the tender & walked along the trails and around the very Italian looking village & we love it here.

This Island is a love story because a very wealthy man bought it for his English wife early in the 20th century. Together they turned it into the paradise it is today as well as bring up 6 children here. It was sold to the French government more recently and is now a very popular but unspoiled resort.

Sadly we have to go today because the weather turns too bad for anchoring & we are choosing not to live in a washing machine. So a short but perfect stay.

Onwards to Port Grimaud .....

Here we are in the Bay of St Tropez on the Côte d’Azur. We were very excited to come here & experience the French Riviera by sea. We are berthed in Port Grimaud which was supposed to be a lot cheaper than St Tropez Marina but actually isn’t. We do prefer it here though because it’s a lot less goldfish bowl than St Tropez which has huge numbers of people constantly walking past admiring the super yachts & lives of the people on board. Here there are hardly any passers by at all & most of the boats are just large rather than super large 😀. Andrew has been here once before, when he was 20 he remembers camping next door to Port Grimaud on a cheap holiday before he started work. It wasn’t cheap here back then and it certainly isn’t cheap now 🤑🤑.

Port Grimaud is an odd place really, it is a 2000 house village built around water channels to resemble an old village but it is fake. It’s not unpleasant but also it isn’t real so we find it a bit odd. The places around it that we have visited however are lovely so it’s not a bad place to be for exploring.

We hired a car on Monday so that we could explore the area. First we did a tour of the villages perchés (hilltop villages). We went to Gassin, Ramatuelle & Grimaud - each one more lovely than the next with such pretty houses and streets. On our way from Ramatuelle we spotted the Chateau de Minuty & couldn’t resist a visit to taste one of our new favourite roses and of course left with a few boxes.

On Tuesday we drove in land to Castellane & the start of the incredible Gorge du Verdon. A jaw dropping gorge that is 1/2 mile deep at its deepest point and at least 25 miles long to the point it opens into a huge lake. We did the entire drive from east to west on the north side & then west to east on the south side taking in amazing geology & nature along the way. Andrew negotiated hundreds of hairpin bends, crazy drivers in the middle of very narrow roads & jaw dropping drops off the side of roads - all very exciting. We walked down into the gorge & along dark tunnels to see the sheer gorge sides and the kayakers haring down the rapids in the icy blue waters. It was one of those places that just had to be seen to get it’s full beauty although we did try to capture some of it in the photos.

Today we have been into Fréjus up the coast to the slightly disappointing market & are heading back into St Tropez again later for another visit to this very pretty & stylish but ridiculously expensive town. I will write more & post about St Tropez separately after we get back.

What can I say about St Tropez - it is all the best of places & all the worst of places combined. It is pretty & compact but it is horrendously excessive & ridiculously expensive. In other “normal” seaside resorts in France we have paid €7 for a cocktail or Aperol Spritz in St Tropez it is €17 for the same drink. It is full of lovely designer shops, over priced bars & restaurants but is also quaint & the countryside around is beautiful so I can see the appeal. It is absolutely a place for people watching, it’s fascinating sitting on the port looking at people looking at super yachts & watching people on super yachts pretend they are not being watched.

Tonight we had a delicious meal & our first non French cuisine since getting to France. We had a really yummy Japanese meal but sadly the extortionately expensive Wagyu beef we ordered was not Wagyu & we had to complain. What we received was very good filet but it was not Wagyu beef and the cost is very very different. In the end after several remonstrations with the waiter & finally restaurant manager the Wagyu was removed from our bill but it was a shame because everything else was delicious & the service was good. Hey ho - these things happen.

Next we head eastwards along the French Riviera to what no doubt will be another expensive town - we are going to Cannes.

From St Tropez to Cannes - we are living the dream here. Actually it rained most of our way here & much of yesterday but that hasn’t spoiled our experience.

Cannes is very different to St Tropez because it is a bigger & much more modern town but still has the excesses of St Tropez & even more super yachts - lots of them. It does feel a bit more real than St Tropez though and the old town is pretty & the market here is outstanding.

We have walked the length of La Croisette along the beach, had an Aperol Spritz along the way. I went up to the castle yesterday and visited a rather eclectic museum whilst Andrew was in a board meeting.

Today we were invited to go and see the new Prestige x70 boat being launched here at the cancelled Cannes Yacht Show. Yes 70 feet big (21.8m), it is what is known as a crossover because it has some of the features of a Super Yacht but perhaps not quite the price tag. Yes it is lovely, yes it is bigger & more luxurious but I think it would really need crew & we like doing things for ourselves. Not to mention the very expensive price tag ..........but we have been invited to dinner by the CEO of Prestige when we go to Sanremo in a couple of weeks, so who knows what might happen then 🤣🤣 after all we bought VA after a nice lunch & bottle of champagne at the Southampton boat show!!

Tomorrow we are anchoring again at the Isles de Lerin just off the bay here in Cannes.

Another stunningly beautiful group of islands off the French south coast & just 2 miles away from Cannes. It didn’t take us long to get here.

Another world of wild beauty, clear turquoise seas & a little peace. Obviously during the day this anchorage was packed full of boats enjoying the beauty, the swimming, paddle boarding & water sports. \240By last night there were only the brave & foolhardy (yes us) left behind to enjoy the washing machine easterly swell all night - yet again wishing we had a gyro (stabiliser) \240😂 like the super yachts here!

The fabulous thing about this anchorage is that there is a pizza takeaway catamaran in the bay. You just phone in your order and at the exact time they tell you it shows up at your boat by boat delivery - hot and frankly quite delicious. We both had a quatre saison & it was the best pizza we have had for ages (we haven’t had many pizzas recently but this was an excellent one).

It was a stunning if not rocky & rolly sunset but then disaster struck and whilst trying to retrieve the green light for us to watch the fish below Andrews finger got trapped in the crew cabin hatch. The full force of the hatch came down on it when the boat rocked & we were very worried it might be broken or severed but luckily it’s just a very deep cut. Out came the first aid kit amazingly for the first time & we managed to fix it up. Fingers crossed it will heal ok over the next few days.

This morning early we took TT (tender to) Verano Azul to shore & explored St Marguerite Island the more northerly of the two main islands on foot before any day visitors arrived by ferry & it was gorgeous & tranquil.

Now off to another playground of the rich - Antibes

So we left the beautiful but rocky Isles de Lerins to travel the short distance here to Antibes. A huge marina & clearly the home of the super yacht because of the number of businesses around the port involved in supplying the super yacht world with crew, food, wine, flowers, insurance - every other business seems to be something for super yachts. It’s a pretty old town though & again has a fabulous daily market.

The marina is so huge & the captanerie so far from where we are berthed that Andrew finally got his way and bought an e-scooter. A new gadget for him & something he has been hankering after for a while.

In Antibes we have visited the Picasso Museum (our 3rd Picasso museum so far - Barcelona & Malaga so I wonder how many Picasso museums there are left for us). It was interesting because it was situated in the Chateau Grimaldi in the old town but it was half filled with other artists stuff some of which was a bit up itself 🤔 and since neither of us are art afficianados we found it a little hard going. The town though is pretty & less full of designer shops than of late.

Today we took the train to Grasse - home of perfume. It is a perched town, in fact it was a huge climb up from the station to the old town at the top of the hill. Once at the top it frankly was probably not worth it. A pretty old town but we have seen many nicer ones. We did enjoy our visit to the International Museum of Perfume though, it was educational & for me anyway very interesting. We think that Grasse is living on its previous glory & is now a little faded & jaded but at least we can say we have been.

Tomorrow after my online Pilates class we are heading to Villefranche-sur-Mer because sadly we can’t get into Nice. I haven’t mentioned that once or twice a week I do my home Pilates via zoom, not something I could do last year but one of the only bonuses of Covid has been the live streaming of my classes so I have been able to keep it up whilst living on board, balance when the boat is rocking has sometimes been a challenge but it’s been fun doing It.

Today is our very last day on the French south coast & in the Côte d’Azur and we think we have really done it justice. Tomorrow we cross into Italy en route to our winter berth in Sanremo. We have now sailed the north, west & south coasts of France & feel we know it a lot better.

Since arriving here last Thursday we have spent a day exploring Villefranche-sur-Mer , a day in Nice, a day on Cap Ferrat, a day in Monaco & today mostly onboard doing chores but with a lovely coastal walk. We have walked 10s of thousands of steps everyday, we have cycled & I have swam in the sea most days.

Villefranche is a really pretty town set on a steep hill with some lovely little streets & huge fort. We have really loved being berthed here & it has been particularly handy for getting the train to other places. Nice is an 8 minute train ride & Monaco just 15 minutes. We found a lovely bar/restaurant just outside the port that does live music every night so spent a couple of evenings there.

Our day in Nice was fabulous, a lovely city well worth a city break. We walked the promenade des Anglais, the old town, the port but sadly didn’t have time for the Chagall or Matisse museums so will have to come back one day.

We cycled to Cap Ferrat to visit Villa Ephrussi-de-Rothschild built by Beatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild in 1917 & an absolutely stunning example of the French Belle Époque period. The gardens are particularly gorgeous & there is a regular musical fountains performance.

Monaco was a must on our list but we are pleased now that we chose not to berth there. We really would have been a very very small fish in a huge boat pond in Port Hercules. There is no doubt of the wealth in Monaco & it was interesting to see but I wouldn’t want to live there & it is far too expensive but we enjoyed visiting.

Food in this part of France tends to be mostly Italian with lots of pizza & pasta so we have been a bit disappointed by what we hoped was going to be amazing Provençal cooking. We have had some nice meals but nothing really unusual or specific to this part of France which is a shame.

We have arrived in our winter berth. We completed our final journey yesterday in rainy conditions sadly so didn’t even really get to enjoy it but we passed by Monaco & crossed the border into Italy & a new world and a new language neither of us is familiar with.

Portosole is a great wintering port though filled with big & bigger boats & has all the facilities we need. Sanremo is a pretty town too with lots of shops, restaurants & of course a great market. We are close to Genoa airport & there is a train station near the port.

We are here for the next 14 days to clean & close down the boat. Also if we stay for 14 days we hopefully won’t have to quarantine when we get home.

I don’t have any pictures yet of here but here are a few from leaving Villefranche & passing Monaco.

So finally it is our last night here on board VA for this season. We have completed just under 1000 nm, spent 88 consecutive nights on board, stopped in 27 Marina’s or anchorages in Spain, France & now Italy (although we also popped into Monaco by train).

It has been wonderful yet weird being away during this very strange Covid year & adapting to the various rules and guidelines in Spain (very strict), in France (very loosey goosey) & now in Italy (somewhere between the other two). We have missed having friends & family to stay in the way we had last year. We had fun with the friends & family we did see in the Balearics.

Yet again we have enjoyed every step of our journey in different ways, we have seen & experienced & tasted a lot 😀. Being in the Med has been a great deal easier than the Atlantic stretches we did last year but we have still had some interesting challenges & weather but nothing we haven’t coped with.

We have spent 14 days here at Portosole Marina in Sanremo, longer than we usually spend anywhere but we wanted to quarantine here rather than when we get home. It’s a lovely lovely town to winter VA in and may I say a \240little bit better than Torrevieja. There are fabulous shops, great restaurants, lovely scenery (mountains & architecture), a fabulous cycle path, the beaches are average but the weather hasn’t really been good enough so it doesn’t really matter.

We have enjoyed better food here than the whole of the South of France which surprised us. We did pop back into Menton to visit Mirazur the current best restaurant in the world & that was of course fantastic but at a huge price. The food & wine here in Sanremo is not quite of that quality & refinement but it is nowhere near as expensive in fact it is amazing value so we know from this small experience that we are going to love doing Italy next summer.

We plan to come back here in January (all being well) to do the service & lift for bottom clean etc & are already looking forward to it. We are going to spend the winter learning Italian so that we can converse. Then we will be back end of March to set off on part 3 of our expedition around the Med - the Italian Job.

In the meantime here are a few photos from our time here. We will be back in 2021 and so will the blog ..... arrividerci 😎