This morning we slept late and got off to a slow start. Eric went to the marina to check in and almost fell over when they told him it was $87.00 USD per night for a slip. Ouch. We certainly weren’t prepared for that. Isn’t this the off season where slips are supposed to be cheaper? We know St. Tropez is the stomping ground of the famous, but we figured that it would be less expensive than Monaco, the stomping ground of the rich. We suppose that famous must trump rich. Since we came from Monaco, there were no check in formalities.

The marina does have restroom and shower facilities for the boats, but there is not a washing machine for the boaters to use. Actually, few marinas have washing machines, so while we were disappointed, it was no surprise. And they told us our boat is too far away from the antenna to get wifi. And if we could get it, it was even more expensive than Monaco.

For centuries, Saint Tropez was a small fishing village. In the early twentieth centuries it attracted a lot of artists and few tourists. In 1956, “And God Created Woman” was filmed here. It starred sex symbol Bridgette Bardo, the woman who popularized the scandalous bikini. We have no idea if the movie was any good, but apparently Bridgette looked super hot, which got the film a lot of attention. Bridgette loved Saint Tropez so much that she moved here permanently. Thanks to her, St. Tropez was suddenly the chic place to holiday. Anyone who is anyone holidays here now. We’d better see some big name movie stars for all the money the marina costs.

We walked into the old section of town, a short walk northeast from the marina. It was another sunny, gorgeous day, and while warm in the sun, was quite chilly in the shade. Saint Tropez is a pretty town. It is centered around a small, picturesque bay packed with mega yachts. The buildings are mostly blocky Mediterranean style, with slightly pitched, tile roofs. They are old buildings painted in cheerful colors. Here and there is a building with a more unique architectural design to break the monotony. There are artists all up and down the quai selling their paintings, some even painting while they wait for customers. The stores along the water are mostly clothes and restaurants.

On the far side of the bay are the remains of a very old rock fortress. There are a few more old looking rock structures here and there, probably part of the fortress. From the fortress remains there are scenic views of the ocean.

Beyond the waterfront, the streets are the charming, narrow pedestrian lanes characteristic of most old towns. Inside the quaint streets there are a lot of art galleries. We have never seen such a concentration of art sales in one place in our lives. There are also lots of restaurants featuring exotic cuisine from assorted places around the world.

After walking around for a while, we grabbed lunch at a Lebanese restaurant and discussed moving out of the marina. We have heard from several people that Saint Tropez is absolutely gorgeous and a must see place, but quite honestly, we have been to many places that exude similar charm in Greece and Italy. Saint Tropez is kind of like Bora Bora very expensive, and while nice, isn’t really any nicer or more special than the other areas around it. If we loved Saint Tropez we would have probably paid the money and stayed a few days, but we felt it was not special enough to justify the cost. Especially since we hadn’t spotted a single movie star.

After lunch, we walked southwest past the marina along the coast to the newer section of town, where the beach is lined with fancy hotels. There is a nice anchorage area in front of these hotels, but we didn’t see any kind of dinghy dock. And for some reason, we sensed the hotels wouldn’t appreciate it if we beach landed and left the dinghy on their exclusive sand. Hmmm.

Saint Tropez is known for its beaches and the beach is indeed nice. We were surprised to see there wasn’t one single person on the beach. Where were all the topless sunbathers we were promised to see? Shouldn’t there be a mass of people out here getting their Bain du Soleil Saint Tropez tan? The dock you can see in the background is private and gated, so we couldn’t use it.

Still undecided about whether we should leave the marina or stay, we decided to get our money’s worth out of the marina’s water right now in case we did decide to leave. Christi scrubbed down Kosmos. The black slime from Monaco had hardened and was difficult to get off. It took a lot of scrubbing, and eventually she gave up on getting it all off. Then we filled up the water tanks.

Eric went to work on fixing the washer door. He took a look at the broken piece. It looked like a simple fix with some epoxy, but after several hours and a few tries, he never could get the handle to stay on when pressure was applied to it. He did figure out how to bypass the door handle with the creative use of a screwdriver. We tried putting a load of laundry in to see if we could figure out why the last load had stopped. We watched carefully, but the washer was working just fine. So we spent the evening doing laundry. We also took long showers.

While the laundry was going, we turned our attention to where to go next. There were several more anchorages near by, but the wind had picked up to 20 knots, so anchoring out wasn’t sounding so good, especially with no place for the dinghy. We called the marina just to the west of Saint Tropez and they told us we were too wide and they couldn’t accommodate us. We then pored over cruising guides trying to decide where to go next. Neither of us was feeling decisive and we never did come to a conclusion.