You can hardly write about Saint-Tropez without mentioning Birgette Bardot, whose life has been a huge contribution to the development of the city for the past 60 years.
The 22 year old actress visited the city in 1956 for the shooting of ...And god created woman (Et Dieu...créa la femme) and just a few years later the city had transformed from a little fishing village to an internationally famous playground, for the rich and the celebrated.
Many of the places she visited are still today classified as cult and A-listed for both jet setters and residents.
An amusing anecdote is that both Picasso and Matisse got their inspiration from the little fishing village in the 40's and 50's, but non of them could create the same attention as the woman who “invented” to sunbathe topless. She became a symbol for rethinking women and also one of the most photographed people in the world at the end of the 50's.
The Winger in water
After a refreshing swim you walk from the water to the sunbed or towel and continue to sun bathe, does it sound normal? Of course! Unfortunately that wasn't really the case for little Charlie, the worst thing he knew was to have sand between the toes which resulted in him forcing his parents or sister to carry him from the water to the towel :P
Realised later that the world won't always give you what you want and that there are backsides of growing up, these days no one is carrying me to the towel and sand between my toes are something I've learned to live with, should have enjoyed myself more while I had the chance. Still get insanely happy tho when there are little tubs of water or a hose to wash of the sand before leaving the beach for the beach house or the car.
Next time you are on the beach with med you can keep an eye on what I'm doing while we leave the beach, would've easy sacrificed the groups last water bottle to wash of my feet before we jump in the car, keep you water close haha.
While we're still on the subject it can be good to now where to go if a visit to the beach is on the agenda during the stay in Saint-Tropez.
Personally I don't really like the beaches in the area, and as long as you don't have a big ass boat to swim from you'd probably be disappointed wherever you go, as long as that isn't your first visit to a beach ever :)
If you want to take a swim super close to the city center there are two options (not my favorite beaches), one is Plage de la Bouillabaisse which is located near the entrance to the city and the other one is a small beach you'll find behind the Hotel Byblos, by the restaurant Les Grainers.
A more serious beach life you'll find after a 7 minute road trip from the city center, the beach is called Pampelonne and is located in Ramatuelle.
On a beach strip that reaches over 5 km you can chose from 26 different beach clubs with sunbeds and restaurants, but if you rather just throw out a towel on the beach or feel for a nude swim, you can do that on the same beach strip ;)
Worth thinking about is that there are three or four routes to the beach and you won't reach every parking lot using the same road, but if you enter Le Club 55 on your GPS you'll end up in the middle of the beach strip, great if you haven't decided which beach you want to visit already.
My three favorite are Tropezina, Cap 21 and Nikki Beach:
Cap 21 Les Murenes has the best location right in front of the parking lot and is the beach closest to the lunch at Le Club 55, Cap 21 also have comfortable mattresses on their sunbeds which is a huge plus.
Nikki Beach is the party people's first choice and the best alternative for festivities, the beach club have ironically no beach, but instead they have swimming pools
and cabanas. Nikki also has a great restaurant and valet parking with a special parking lot for luxury cars.
Tropezina is located at the top of the beach strip and is the place my parents went swimming, partying and sunbathing during the early 70's. There's a familiar vibe and the excellent food in the restaurant combined with fine service and nice people makes it my top choice. If you visit Tropezina och see a gentleman with white hair and red sunglasses I'll guarantee you that that's the owner Stefan, there are few like him that has been there from the start, so mingle and ask questions, maybe you'll get a free lunch or maybe you get something better, stories from the past ;)
The first three pictures are from last year while the other three where taken in the late 80's and early 90's.
Sunday 10-14-2018
The last day we woke up a bit later, our nice landlord Julia had no guests checking in that day, so we got the apartment as long as we wanted, there are many benefits with Airbnb :)
We always try to visit some of the wineries in the area when we visit the French Riviera and today it was time to visit one of our favorite, Château Minuty.
7 or 8 years ago I first came in contact with Minuty, during a couple of crazy party days at “Kallis” when people from Stockholm invade Gotland for a week at the end of July every year. Earlier I had tried many different kinds of Rosé wines, but liked this one a bit extra because it came in 3 liter bottles at the time!hehe
The winery it self is located 10 minutes by car from Saint-Tropez, but during the summer I myself usually take a detour from the beach (black line) and in that way I can swing by on my way back to the city or the hotel. Something I strongly recommend since you pass a whole lot of wineries on the way, maybe you'll find your own favorite.
Since you only drink rosé wine during the summer months, according to me, it is good that Minuty also has a awesome red wine in their selection and we left the winery with a couple of the favorite Prestige Rouge and since Systembolaget only sell rosé from that brand it's good to pile up for the winter.
Of course I took the opportunity to fly the drone during the visit, so you can count on a Minuty video on the page soon :)
When we got back from the winery the sun was setting over Saint-Tropez and it was almost time to head off. We checked out, dropped the key in the mailbox and steered the car out of the city. Due to an event we had to drive 20km/hour all the way while hundreds of Porsche cars flooded the city. Read more about events 2019 if you're planning a trip.
The plan for the remaining of the trip was to spend a night in Nice before flying to Rome for an Italian adventure, but that part I'll probably write about another time.
As you may have come to understand this is a very special place for me and my family and there is so much more to tell, but I'm saving it for my next visit to Saint-Tropez.
The pictures below portray three birthdays, the first time I rode a vespa, when I threw Lily up in the air, when mum read me stories, when we ate chicken on La Moutte beach, when we drank Aperol spritz at Hotel des Lices and of course a few nice pictures of me and my family. There's also a picture when I just ate my first piece of meat, creepy smile deluxe haha.
Finishing up with a funny sentence I heard during a wild party night at the club Les Caves du Roy, when one of the club visitors fucked out more than usual, a visitor calling himself Abu Dhabi and who probably had a connection to the Emirates or like owned it. A sentence me and crew use til this day when we're bragging about how well someone is doing, a sentence I don't thing you'd hear anywhere else but here:
– Abu Dhabi in the hooouuuuuuse, Cristal for everyone!!
//