The French Riviera - Saint Raphael

Our first destination for the weekend was Saint Raphael, a small town in the south of France along the long coastal line of the famous French Riviera. It is a "cheaper" version of Saint Tropez. The latter one is famous as the perfect holiday destination for the rich where they bought expensive houses (read: villas) and luxurious yachts. Well, Saint Raphael is exactly the same thing except that it is less heard-of than Saint Tropez.

When we reached there at noon, we headed to the Office du Tourisme but it was closed. The French really know how to enjoy life man. Offices and shops have to close for at least 2 hours for lunch. In Singapore, however, we will call this inefficiency! So we walked around the Vieux Port (old port) where the older and smaller yachts were parked.

At the Vieux Port

The Office du Tourisme then recommended us to take this hiking trail by the sea called Sentier du Littoral, which was supposedly the highlight of the town.

So let pictures do the talking....

L-R: Casino Barrière de St. Raphael, Palm-lined streets

L-R: On the beach, The elders passing their time playing traditional game of Pétanque

Santa Lucia Port, where all the glamorous yachts were parked, and where all u can do is to stare and dream that you have one.

L-R: Start point of Sentier du Littoral, monkeying around

Views by the sea

L-R: testing my water-proof shoes (again), Sinhui carefully climbing down

L-R: another view, Sinhui and I resting

L-R: more view, classic food photowhoring

L-R: beach at night, can u see the rainbow?

L-R: testing shoes again, but failed cos the waves came angrily; had to change to slippers.

We found the residents of Saint Raphael very warm as well as accomodating. The lady in the Office du Tourisme was especially friendly and attended to all our queries very patiently. The cars will stop whenever we wanted to cross the roads, in complete contrast to that of Grenoble. We took an 20:30 train to Cannes to end our long day under the sun.