aixcentric

If the Metéo is correct, there will be some sunny days next week and so maybe it’s time to visit the beach?  Much as I like the Calanques, I do love a long stretch of sand and an esplanade for a good healthy walk.  So this week, we headed off to Fréjus plage which is just over an hour’s drive from Aix.  We swapped sun in Aix for a chilly wind down on the exposed coast; but we wrapped up, had a bracing walk along to St Raphael and then dived into a restaurant for lunch.

Les Sablettes is a restaurant/pizzeria ‘les pieds dans l’eau’ – I do love this French expression!  For a day outside school holidays and on a weekday too, it filled up very quickly, especially the cosy inside room which seats a lot of people. But we were happy out on the terrace where we had beautiful views – but we didn’t stick our pieds dans l’eau! 

Afterwards we made a good find – the little Plage de la Galiote at nearby St Aygulf.  It’s tucked away on the other side of the bay from Frejus/St Rapahel so you get nice views of the Esterel mountains and you are protected from the wind.  Result!  Scarves and fleeces off, we enjoyed coffees and ice-creams at one of the 6 little cafes that are advertised as being  les pieds dans le sable!

 (Left) This is the view from our table and (above/right) here are the cafés which line the sands.  It’s ideal for families who want to eat simply while their children play on the beach or in the shallow waters.

However – and this is a big ‘but’ – I wouldn’t attempt this on warm weekends or in the school holidays.  The whole area is frenetically busy with traffic, people, camp-sites, large chain shops.  It’s quite incredible that St Raphael just one hundred years ago was a tiny fishing village – F. Scott Fitzgerald fell in love with it while he was living there, working on ‘The Great Gatsby’. Goodness knows what he would think of the acres of concrete, boxy apartment blocks and tourist shops that are there now.  But you can find little corners of peace where you can admire the beauty of the coast and, les pieds dans le sable, gather shells and happy memories for another day.