8 May - beaches, croissants and cappacinos in Provence

Woke up excited and eager to see our first Port of Call. Toulon was a total unknown to us and we wanted to have a nice quiet Sunday of exploring the little town on the beautiful Cote 'Azure.
We went to the ship's buffet for a lovely first morning on the cruise breakfast and enjoyed the scenery as we pulled into a lovely bay with little houses in small clusters perched above the rocky coat with waves crashing onto the stoney beaches. Maybe they were villages or suburbs, we were not sure which.  I did not see any vineyards which is one of the things that Provence is famous for That and Lavender i suppose, but they were probably not on the coast.

We watched from deck 7 as the port men pulled the big mooring ropes, which I thought must weigh a ton each, up and onto the big cleats on the dock by hand.  Do they not have a union here? Do they not have machinery for these things? I had not even noticed this on my previous cruise probably as I was in Alaska and was distracted by the gorgeous scenery of each port.

When the ship announced that we could disembark we lined up and went through the security on deck 4 who scanned our room cards and told us we needed the card to get back on the ship so DO NOT LOSE it.  We put our cards safely into our purses and vowed to not lose them. We were let go down the gangplank to the dock where we were greeted by the ship photographers who really wanted to take our pictures but we said "no, thank you" as I knew from previous experience that they charge you to collect them, and we were in Provence in Toulon, on the Cote D'Azur! We did not have to go through anymore security than that.

The dock had lovely little trains all lined up waiting for us tourists to take us into town.  For a mere 12 Euros each we could get the tour of Toulon. There were three stops on the map with the port being the first stop or last stop depending on how you looked at it. We paid for our ticket and hopped on.

Toulon has been inhabited since paleolithic times. The Greeks, the Romans, the ligurians? All the big guys have lived there at one time or another it seems. It is a town of about 160 thousand people now right on the mediterranean, a section called the Cote D'Azur, and is lovely with beaches and naval yards and little markets. I have to look up what colour azure is as the water was a pretty blue but not sure if it was azure.

We got off at the first stop which was the beach in a very nice park with palm trees and little beach front cafes. There were only a few people out probably as it was not very warm and it was Sunday morning so we thought everyone was either sleeping in or in church. Margie was brave and went into the water first ,only to her toes, as we did not dress for the beach and then I bravely followed,
toes only. It was actually very cold.

After that harrowing experience we decided, although we had already had a nice big breakfast, to stop in at the Margarette Cafe  and ordered cafe au lait and the fresh warm croissant. They were both so delicious. What a lovely time. Sitting in a cafe on the Cote D'Azur, watching a family by the seaside. The breeze had come up and a little boy's hat went to sea. He was ever so upset by that and the father thought about going in after the tiny chapeau but did not go in after it choosing instead to try and sooth this child who would not be soothed.  In the end the mother waded to just below her knees, grabbed the tiny floating cap and returned it to the now soothed child who, once having his precious garment returned, was now only interested in riding his tiny bike along the seawall path. Adventures on the Cote D'Azur.

We finished our lovely little repast and wandered a little further down the coast then returned along the inside path through the gardens of palm trees, grass and flowers. There were a few more folks out now some riding bikes, some on roller blades but most were walking or strolling. There was a kids playground that one could pay to let their child play in. There were little kiosk tents opening up to sell jewelry and food items.  We wandered past just soaking it all in.

We went back to the stop for the train but when the train came not enough people got off to let us on so we decided to walk to the next stop if we could find it. We walked down the main road  and try to see where the train turned in. We did see some lovely gardens and views of the bay. We passed by museums that were closed  and  old forts on the beach that might have been open but we were on the wrong side of the road by that time.
The little train passed us and turned up a street on its 30 min schedule so we  turned up that same street looking for the stop. We passed a pharmacy that was open and Margie got some Ibuprofen and I got a hair brush. As we continued up the road we saw the little train again but did not see where it turned. We came to a market in town and after wandering through the tables and deciding that we really did not want anything there found a restaurant /bar with a washroom. A lot of people seem to smoke there and there are small shop/cafes that just sell cigarettes, booze and coffee. We wandered up the street and and found a few souveniry and jewelry kind of shops that were still open and Margie picked up a few nice

things. Then with the weather changing into a cloudy kind of spitty day. we wandered back down to the main road and looked for the little train.
It never went by the market so we did not know where  it turned. We asked about getting a taxi in one cafe but they said the taxi would be hard to get on a Sunday. The taxi? This town has only one taxi? Must have been the translation.  as we walked along we did see some native wildlife, an escargot. Run little fellow, they will eat you here.

We thought about taking a bus as we walked back towards the port and our ship . We thought about catching the bus to the gondola ride up the mountain to see the view but we did not. We passed a little memorial  with lots of french flags. we passed apartments and bus stops. We walked on and before too long we were back to the port, safe and sound, with the ship in sight.

Before getting back on the ship there was a little market of sorts in the terminal selling locally made item. I picked up some lovely monogramed lavender pomanders and postcards for my friends back home. Margie got some too. Then back on the ship and a nice sit down dinner at the buffet restaurant and it was nice.  We enjoyed watching the scenery as we left Toulon. Seaside parks and colourful sailboats.
 That evening we went to the show on board and it was a fun time. when we got back to our room we had an animal on our bed. a towel one and very cute along with the next days itinerary. We fell asleep pretty fast dreaming of croissants and florence our next port of call.

oulon.