Haute Cagnes Redux

We were able to make room for one more night in Haute Cagnes with our hostess Willy-Maria on Friday night.  The drive from Isere to Haute Cagnes was a bit long, made longer by our GPS's insistence on a weird route which seemed to be the longest path.  

Anyway, we arrived in time to enjoy some wine in our room followed by a walk around the village. There are many cats in Haute Cagnes and it was nice to see them frequently on our walks. The men were setting up the boules on the village square (there are about three boules courts) and we settled into dinner at a well known local restaurant, Le Manoir.  This restaurant is under a new chef/owner who is French but has an English name (and speaks very nice English).  He has priced his set dinner exceedingly attractively.  For 25 Euro each we had excellent first courses, main courses and deserts.  We drank Kir Royales (Kir liquor in sparkling wine).  

The central square of Haute Cagnes where the boules courts are located

The Grimaldi castle at the heart of the village - an art and olive oil museum is located there (yes, it is a combined museum)

A panorama of the main square

A panorama from the square looking north (inland)

Highly recommended in Haute Cagnes - for the food and the favorable prices

Alice and Randy at Le Manoir as taken by the gregarious owner, Eric Andrews

The very yummy salmon tartare starter

Randy's fish with pasta and grilled vegetables

Alice opted for the very rich and very French duck breast with melted Camembert cheese (and potatoes and grilled vegetables)

Randy has the desert trio of mousse, creme broulee and flan

Afterwards, we strolled the village again by night (where the boules players were going strong) and turned in.  In the morning we enjoyed Willy-Maria's breakfast basked in bed and packed our clean clothes.  Willy-Maria's place has a washer and drier and we took full advantage and did three loads.  Unlike our thrifty Swiss landlady she does not charge for usage of these.  Packed up, we wheeled our luggage through the village and retrieved our car from the underground automatic parking garage.

View from the bedroom of Willy-Maria's - note the sea at top

View from the bathroom window of Willy-Maria's onto the narrow village street

Randy chills out with his ipad in the bedroom

Part of the very spacious bathroom (actually larger than the bedroom) - contains a separate toilet room and a bidet and a separate shower (and dual sinks)

Off of the bathroom is a large closet area with fridge, microwave, closet, chair, dishes, etc.

We decided to head for Saint-Tropez on the Riviera coast just because it was pretty much along the way and we had heard of it.  The drive was so nice along the coast but Saint-Tropez was packed with Saturday visitors and did not look like anything too special.  So we just drove through and navigated to a scenic outlook park (Cap Camarat) by a lighthouse (Phare Camarat) a little further west on the coast.  There, we had our usual picnic of bread, fruit, cheese, wine, milk (for Randy).  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful location.

View from our picnic spot (Cap Camarat) just west of Saint Tropez

Panorama of the same spot

Randy enjoys his lunch with a view

Selfie on the Riviera

A detail of the nice flora

Seemingly everything was in bloom this spring Saturday

The wild flowers of the coast

The lighthouse (Phare Camarat) next to the park on this pennisula

The drive along the coast continued and was both relaxing and breathtaking at the same time.  We turned inland to the highway west of Toulon and arrived at next (and last) stop in France.  This is located in a suburb northwest of Marseille and not far from Gardanne and Aix.  But, more on that later.