St Tropez is a great place to visit at this time of year, before the deluge of visitors arrive. This coming weekend sees the Voiles Latines a Saint-Tropez nautical festival, a celebration of traditional local boats.
Most of the action takes place in the Vieux Port though the races themselves are in the bay. Visitors can witness the parade nautique, a chance to see all the boats including the delightful local pointus, joutes nautiques, competitions between boats which end up with the participants getting very wet indeed, les danseurs folkloriques and of course the food stalls.
The organisers explain: “Once again this year mainland Italians, Sardinians, Corsicans, Balearic Spanish, Tunisians and, closer to home, sailors from Toulon, Setoi, Cavalaire, St Raphaël, Fréjus, Saint-Tropez (of course) and many others descend on our lovely port to share a typically Mediterranean passion, that of the lateen sail.
With its elegant and easily recognisable shape, the triangular lateen sail measures around 20 sqm and is made of cotton. Originally the sails were brown from being dyed with pine bark. So where did it come from? The gracious winged profile was already being used in the days of the Romans and Phoenicians although its history is lost in the mists of time. One thing is certain: it is very much a part of the common heritage of seafarers in the Mare Nostrum”.
More detail here: http://www.societe-nautique-saint-tropez.fr/snst/en/evenements-us/voiles-latines-a-saint-tropez-us/#tab-id-1
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