Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
PRESQU'ÎLE DE ST-TROPEZ
Jutting out into the sea, between the Golfe de St-Tropez and the Baie de Cavalaire, is the
St-Tropez peninsula. From swanky St-Tropez on the northern coast, fine-sand beaches of
buttercream yellow and gold - easily the loveliest on the Côte d'Azur - ring the peninsula.
Inland, the flower-dressed hilltop villages of Gassin and Ramatuelle charm the socks off
millions.
St-Tropez
POP 4986
Pouting sexpot Brigitte Bardot came to St-Tropez in the '50s to star in
Et Dieu Créa la
Femme
(
And God Created Woman
; 1956) and transformed the peaceful fishing village
overnight into a sizzling jet-set favourite. Tropeziens have thrived on their sexy image ever
since: at the Vieux Port, yachts like spaceships jostle for millionaire moorings, and infin-
itely more tourists jostle to admire them.
Yet there is a serene side to this village which is trampled by 100,000 visitors a day in
summer. Out of season the St-Tropez of mesmerising quaint beauty and 'sardine scales
glistening like pearls on the cobblestones' that charmed Guy de Maupassant (1850-93)
comes to life. Meander down cobbled lanes in the old fishing quarter of La Ponche, sip pas-
tis at a place des Lices cafe, watch old men play
pétanque
(a variant on the game of bowls)
beneath plane trees, or walk in solitary splendour from beach to beach along the coastal
path.
HEADLESS HERO
A grisly legend provided St-Tropez with its name in AD 68. After beheading a Roman officer named Torpes for be-
coming a Christian, the emperor Nero packed the decapitated body into a small boat, along with a dog and a rooster
who were to devour his remains. Miraculously, the body came ashore in St-Tropez un-nibbled, and the village ad-
opted the headless Torpes as its saint.
