Have had a great week here in the San Raphael area – the caravan site, Camping du Viaduc, is actually in Antheor, an area right by the sea just outside the small town of Agay which in turn is just east along the coast from the larger resort town of San Raphael. It’s backdrop is the famous pink sandstone rock of the Esterel Mountains and in front the sparkling blue Med  - a lovely spot at the end of the Cote d’Esterel, which then turns into the Cote d’Azur spreading along the coast to Antibes, Cannes, Nice and Monaco.

Spent a day in San Raphael, walking along the seafront promenade and looking round the town – quite busy, the weather was hot and sunny.  Visited the beautiful Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Victoire built mainly out of the local pink sandstone with fabulous, and quite modern, stained glass windows.

Found out why a Basilica is called a Basilica – do you know?  Well - are you sitting comfortably? …........... then we’ll begin ……….. a Parish Church is the church of a community entrusted to a Priest; a Chapel is a small church; an Abbey is run by an Abbot and a Cathedral is the church of a Bishop. The term Basilica is added to any of the above as a mark of special recognition and is the highest honour that can be bestowed - and can only be bestowed by the Pope himself. Four major Basilicas are in Rome. Currently there are 1,478 Basilicas in the world of which116 are in France. Here endeth the first Lesson.

The town of Frejus joins up with San Raphael from the west and its seafront is lined with the usual tourist bars cafes and gift shops. As you walk to the San Raphael end, the seafront changes to smarter hotels and restaurants with a quieter more up-market atmosphere. We ended up on the beach here for a couple of hours topping up our tans which had faded somewhat after six weeks in the UK. Out of the main seaside resorts we visited this week, St Raphael was our favourite with its esplanade, lovely sandy beach, very friendly beach bar, relatively easy parking and although busy it never seemed crowded.

We went to Nice on the train for a day, stopping at Cannes on the way back. We got on the train just up the road from the caravan site and then rode over the big viaduct which gives our caravan site its name – see photos. The train was surprisingly small, old, crowded and tatty (although on time) and we stood all the way. The one hour journey along the coast, however, was made more bearable by the great views of the many seaside towns (15 stops) and sea views along the way.   Cost, zero – nobody seemed to want to sell us a ticket, a bit like Flax Bourton to Weston-super-Mare.

We found Nice very bustling, very windy, crowded and not particularly attractive with its stony beach although we really enjoyed walking up into the high gardens at the east end of the seafront, overlooking the port. We then got lost walking down a different way and found ourselves in the narrow backstreets of the old town – much more appealing and enjoyable to us.

We enjoyed Cannes more – although it was also busy and very windy. The seafront strip was lined with large hotels with their own private beach areas -we didn’t explore the town but had a couple of hours on the beach. George was reminiscing about how he spent a week with a mate from uni sleeping on the harbour wall in Cannes in his hitch hiking days. They had been moved on from Monte Carlo as vagrants.

The railway station at Nice was quite big and not very user-friendly. We had trouble finding the correct platform for our return journey. Had an interesting conversation with a young Dutch lad who had the platform number printed on his ticket, but all the platforms were actually designated by letters! – we thought we were being dumb but actually the French travellers didn’t seem any better at it than us. The train ride back was on a big double-decker jobbie – clean, fast and comfortable – and it only stopped at about four stations before ours. Had to pay this time though 5.20€ each and then 4.70€ each for the last train from Cannes back to Antheor later.

Went west to San Tropez one day. About a one hour drive and the traffic was horrendous. We passed through San Maxime on the way which seemed an attractive place. San Tropez itself was as we remembered it from the last time we were here - nearly forty years ago – full of traffic, tourists and expensive shops, busy and tired looking. Quite a nice walk along the water front and marina, viewing the work of the artists who set up here and, of course, the massive boats lining the quay. We heard a lot of American being spoken and think most of it had originated from the cruise ship in the bay, one of the huge Voyagers. We got away from the town and found a little beach by the road where we could relax for a while. To avoid the traffic nightmare of the coast road back we headed inland through Cogolin and a gorgeous scenic route through the mountains.

Spent our last day here on the beach – just across the road and underneath the viaduct from the caravan site – lovely blue sky until about 8.00pm when it started raining. We don’t mind, we are off tomorrow for the short hop to San Remo – just into the Italian Riviera – looking forward to exploring that coastline.

We have belatedly discovered that we can connect to the internet just down the road at the other caravan site which saves us going to McDonalds in San Raphael, so you should now be quite up to date !

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