Toulon to Ste. Maxime

May 10, 2025

Back on the Cote d’Azur

After a calm crossing and good sleep, we were awakened at 5:30 on the ferry for arrival into Toulon at 6:30 am. It was a beautiful morning and exiting was pretty easy, although still a bit of a walk. Being a pedestrian on these ferries would be tough for the mobility-challenged. Or for anyone with a large suitcase.

We arrived at a waterfront cafe by 7 am. I ate my first almand croissant of trip. So good.

About 10 priests and maybe student priests walked by us in succession wearing white cassocks, exiting the nearby church. Each was walking by themselves, about a minute apart. Maybe they’ve taken a vow of silence.

The nice outdoor location teeming with life suddenly turned a bit too real when the edge of our table got pooped on by a pigeon and I got hit with a good portion of the ricochet that went in all directions. Scott Anderson thought it was the start of a bad day when he got crapped on last week, but I tried to take it as a good omen. 🤞

Read on to see how the rest of the day worked out… it was a long day in three parts. 1. Toulon. 2. The Côte d’Azur bit in the middle. 3. A very strange welcome to Ste. Maxime. Apologies for the length of the entry.

Our brightly coloured ferry. Newest one I’ve ever been on, I’d say.

It’s a real fishing port, it seems, not just tourist land.

As we sat enjoying our coffee, the large Toulon outdoor market was setting up. It’s not a ‘make it/grow it’ market - we saw people selling a variety of French produce, but also imported things like kiwis and avocados. Toulon is France’s ninth largest city, and the size of the market reflected that.

There were some prepared things too, including tagines and this paella kiosk.

Les Halles here isn’t a market, but has been renovated as a bunch of restaurant kiosks. And is a convenient place to find a toilet.

Toulon hadn’t quite woken up as I walked to get my rental car.

Mel set off biking to the east and I had an easy 15 minute walk to the nearby train station for my rental car pickup at 9 am. I had a long wait at the kiosk because the guy ahead of me seemed to dither about what he wanted to rent and the cost of insurance. Then, picking up my car in the garage I had to wait again while he complained about insurance and other issues. So it was 9:30 before I had my exit interview with the guy in the garage.

My car was a brand new Renault Captur, which wasn’t nearly as nice to drive as the small Suzuki Swift in Corsica. I needed a tutorial in how to get it into reverse. The car has squishy steering, which I don’t like. And only USB-C plug-ins, so I couldn’t charge my phone. Thank goodness for the Bluetooth connection to CarPlay and my downloaded Google maps, because I really needed the map screen and turn-by-turn directions. The car also displays the speed limit and beeped if I was above it by even 1 km/h. That’d get annoying in the long term, but I was happy to have it today because the speed limit seemed to change every 200 m.

I saw a busy dedicated paved bike path beside my highway. It wouldn’t have been too scenic since it’s just next to the autoroute. But it would’ve been safe. Mel reports that she rode it for quite a while.

The bike lane had a centre line. Lots of roads do not.

I didn’t pass through any tunnels while driving, but Mel did on her bike. Nicely lit.

An ‘insect hotel’. Better than insects in a people hotel!

Once I turned off the highway onto Route de Cabasson heading for my hiking trailhead east of Toulon, there were many road bikers. Lots with blinking rear lights, so it seems the blinky light ban doesn’t have much traction here. I got the last parking spot at the trailhead near Bregancon recommended for my Komoot route.

I started my hike just before 11 am. After about five minutes of walking I spent a bunch of time faffing around trying to find the turn off from my rough road onto the designated trail. No luck. It must be overgrown. I had to go up and around, adding about 1 km. The end of this route had lots of prickly bushes overgrowing the path in places. Thanks goodness for gps tracking on my phone, or I might still be out there amidst the brambles.

Having survived the prickly bushes, I walked on a narrow paved road for a bit. Drivers are more prudent here than Corsica. But I still got buzzed by one sports car on a paved section. So I started carrying my poles sideways whenever a car passed me. They won’t want their cars scratched!

Then I reached the beautiful coastal path, the Sentier du Littoral, via the Parc de L’Estagnol. Drivers pay dearly, but there is no charge for pedestrians.

The beach wasn’t too busy on this nice Saturday in May. There were people of all shapes and sizes, lots of them picnicking.

By this point, I had started to forget about the prickly bushes I endured to get here. It’s lovely!

There was a steady stream of people walking the shoreline path, and some trail runners too.

At times, the path had to go a wee bit inland. there were some areas of rocky pathway, and lots of firm sand. I was glad to have hiking poles.

I ate my leftover pizza lunch at a shady picnic table within view of the ocean. It was really beautiful.

This stretch of beach was for families. I saw a sign forbidding nudity, and one at a beach restaurant requiring shirts. Based on other trips to Europe, I’d have expected that men’s bathing suits might be different here than at home, but I saw only one older guy in a pair budgie smugglers. All the younger men and boys were in surf-type shorts like we’d see in North America.

There were a few restaurants along my route, but no giant resorts or mega mansions. That’ll have to wait until tomorrow. There were more prickly bushes and a requirement to backtrack from private property at the end of my route getting back to the car. I gave the Komoot route a lousy review, except for the fabulous coastline stretch. It was about 14 km and 3.5 hours in the end. Next time, I’d just pay to park at the beach and do an out-and-back.

This beautiful golden retriever was very conflicted. It REALLY wanted to be with its owner, but was scared to get on the paddleboard.

It was eventually lured out with a stick. Retrievers gotta retrieve!

It was another stressful drive today due to a motorbike gathering near Ste. Maxime. There were hundreds and hundreds of incredibly loud Harleys. And none of the BMW touring motorcycles that were so common the Corsica. Some of the riders were just old guys with Harleys, but I saw actual gang member jackets, including Hells Angels. Yikes. They were driving like jerks, and there was quite a traffic jam.

Then, if the Harley traffic jam wasn’t enough to raise my blood pressure, we experienced the weirdest welcome ever from a host. We had trouble getting into our apartment in Ste. Maxime because we didn’t get lockbox instructions via booking.com, and nobody responded to our messages sent via the booking.com app. I telephoned the number listed in our reservation and reached an exceptionally rude person who acted very strangely when we called - he understood me, called me ‘Cherie’ and said if I wanted to stay at the apartment it would be VERY EXPENSIVE. It sounded like he was a drunk guy out with his friends, who were laughing in the background. Then he hung up on me and let the next call go to voicemail. And also acted strangely when Mel called from her phone. Holy cow. So strange. We called booking.com and they had no luck reaching the owner, and assured us they’d find us a place to stay. While I was in hold with booking.com, Mel texted the number that we had called and he responded with just the lock box code. Was that the same rude guy who answered the phone, and was he the owner, or a drunk caretaker who answered the owner’s phone?

So once we got the lockbox code and got into the place, it isn’t bad. It’s in an excellent location near the beach and has secure gated parking. It is dated, but it has a nice renovated shower, decent wifi, a washing machine and drying rack. Plus a variety of coffees and teas. We booked it ages ago - I can’t quite remember, but it might have been marked as a ‘new listing’ with no reviews. As of now, there’s only one from a couple of weeks ago.

After doing a load of laundry, we went out for dinner to a nearby beach bar and spent a small fortune because this is the Côte d’Azur. But it was very good. And the staff were delightful. The owner carried Mel’s bike down the stairs and back up again at the end.

Dinner at a beach bar. It was a bit cool and windy.

We didn’t go to the private beach club next door where there was a Ferrari SUV parked. Who knew Ferrari made SUVs? Google tells me they start at 440,000 euros.

So, was getting pooped on by a bird bad luck or good luck? I’d have to say that it was a mixed but very memorable day.

Mel reported that she had very different ride today than in Corsica. It was flatter, of course, with, lots of bikes and bike trails, and more cars.

Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles)
Total: 794 km (493 miles)

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