Toulon SUN SEA and NAKED BODIES

Have just spent a glorious week in Toulon on the Cote D'zur. We never planned to go there but as we are discovering this blog site has been well named and a chance meeting sent us to Toulon instead of our intended destination.

Having sold our semis tickets last weekend we decided to go to the park behind the Eiffel Tower with about 100,000 other people to watch the game on the big screen and join in the party atmosphere. On our way to the park we met a couple in a bar and ended up chatting and sharing a beer with them. She was an Aussie and he was from South Africa and they had been travelling as well away from their home town of 8 years in Dublin. We mentioned that we were getting out of Paris and wanted to go to Marsielle it was at their suggestion we skip it and try further along the coast. Hence we ended up purchasing return tickets on the TGV to Toulon and were so pleased that we had.

Toulon is about 30 mins from Aix en Provence which is a glorious town with fantastic local markets and also about 45 mins from Nice etc so it was a good central location and we had thought we would do some sight seeing, we didn't though.

Toulon for you Rugby heads is home of the RFCT or the Rugby team that will be home to Tana Umunga, Anton Oliver, George Gregan and Victor Matlock. They already have Andrew Mertons playing for them. So its a real rugby town and Tana is the local hero. There are posters of him everywhere and Chris couldn't resist buying the locals teams jersey as a souvenir.

The weather was unbelievable and not to rub it in but we had clear blue skies and mid to high 20s everyday.

Its a naval port and a fishing town so the food, scenery, harbour and atmosphere was perfectly conducive to lying in the sun, swimming and drinking cold beers. All of which we achieved in our week.

We stayed for 3 nights in a central city hotel but for one night managed to go to the sea side area called Le Mourllion about a 10 minute bus trip from the Centre Ville. This is where the plages or main beaches are located and we found a beautiful hotel overlooking the marina for the night.

The day we spent there we ended up walking along the coastal walkway which was built a couple of hundred years ago and used by customs officers to look out for smugglers and pirates. Its is about a 10km round trip but I convinced Chris that all of the guide books recommended it to find some beautiful scenery and stunning private bays to swim in.

It was little more than a goat track in places and fairly heavy going in the heat but after promising, jokingly, that I would buy the first beer when we eventually stopped, out of nowhere and I mean nowhere we stumbled across a tiny village perched over a little bay that had a small cafe and tavern. Chris got his beer and we also got some amazing photos.

Feeling slightly refreshed we continued walking along the coast looking for a place to swim. We found one and both went swimming in the clear waters of the Mediterranean. We also got an eyeful of the local scenery as we had to walk past the locals basking in the sun and in all their glory. And overall tans were the order of the day in this part of the world. Not only were we the whitest on the beach but also the most over dressed.

So Toulon turned out to be a real highlight, the food was fab in local restaurants right on the water and the town was friendly. I'd recommend it to anyone.