Saint-Tropez's low-key little sister Saint-Tropez's low-key little sister There are more bakers and butchers than nightclubs
and nail bars in Sainte-Maxime, just north of Saint-
Tropez in Provence's Var département. And colourful
fishing boats land the day's catch right on the
harbour.
Less ritzy than many of its Côte d'Azur neighbours,
this small town has an unflashy lifestyle suited less
to film stars than to the saint it is named after.
Maxime was a daughter of a ninth-century Count of
Grasse, who rejected his wealth, turned her back on
her family and took herself off to nearby Callian,
where she founded a convent. A painting in the stark,
local church shows her refusing a coffer of gold.
Opposite the church is the Tour Carrée, Sainte-
Maxime's only real historic monument, a fortified
blockhouse built in 1520 to defend the coast against
Saracen pirates. Today, it's a museum of local
history (open 3pm-6pm Wed-Sun, adult €3).
Sainte-Maxime remained a tiny port throughout the
18th century: wine, olive oil, vegetables and cork
from the Maures forest were loaded on to tartanes
(small sailing vessels) and shipped along the coast.
The trading port has now been replaced by a marina
with 800 moorings.
Just behind the marina, the traffic-free Promenade
Aymeric Simon-Lorière, shaded by pines, palms and
cacti, leads to a gravel and sand beach. There are
boules courts (floodlit for evenings), with balls to
hire from an on-site hut. A game costs just €2 (€3 on
Wednesday and Saturday).
The seafront has the usual phone-case and beachwear
shops, interspersed with bars and brasseries. Café
Maxime on Avenue Charles de Gaulleis always heaving
with holidaymakers, and for good reason - the salads
are huge and fresh, and generous sharing boards of
charcuterie cost €12. Back towards the marina, on the
edge of the of the newly cobbledstreets of the old
town, Café de France has been there since 1852, when
Sainte-Maxime was still a fishing village. Old photos
on its walls show fishing nets drying outside. Today
it has an outdoor terrace, jazz nights and a two-
course lunch for €14 - a bargain on the French
Riviera.
Le Bistrot de Louis on narrow place Colbert is
another favourite: its three-course menu du bistro
(€26) is worth the money: faultless fish soup, sea
bream filet and a dame blanche (vanilla ice-cream,
whipped cream and chocolate sauce). For less formal
eating try Le Porche, in a medieval archway off rue
d'Alsace, which does burgers of several kinds for
around €11.50, with chips and salad.
On summer evenings, the streets around Place du
Marché come alive with the stalls selling jewellery,
straw hats and provençal lavender soaps. There's live
music and locals hang out around the stone lavoir -
the old public laundry - eating ice-cream. The indoor
morning market merits a browse too - pick up cheese,
fruit and rotisserie chicken or indulge in the oyster
bar at the back.
For the best beach action, follow the coast road east
and north, past giant parasol pines and gated villas,
to Plage de la Nartelle, 2km of sand with parasols
and water sports. Beside the road sit the rusted
remains of an amphibious Sherman tank used in the
Allied landings on 15 August 1944. Damaged by a
German land mine, the tank remained buried under the
sand until a storm in 2011, and has since been part-
restored. French resistance fighters in Sainte-Maxime
were informed of the landings by two coded messages
transmitted by the BBC in London: "Nancy a le
torticolis" (Nancy has a stiff neck) and "Le chef est
affamé" (The chef is famished).
A little further up the coast is Plage Les Eléphants,
a thin strip of sand named for Jean and Cécile de
Brunhoff's Babar children's books. The couple had a
house here in the 1930s and the bay inspired Jean to
illustrate Babar's balloon-trip honeymoon with
Celeste in The Travels of Babar (1937). The seaside
villa is now in private hands but there are bungalows
to rent on nearby campsite Les Cigalons (from €290 a
week).
Whichever beach you are on, the view across the gulf
is of the flesh-coloured facades of Saint-Tropez.
Ferries operated by Les Bateaux Verts run to the
resort every 15 minutes from Sainte-Maxime marina.
Visitors imagine they'll spend the day in Saint-
Tropez, but three hours is probably enough time to
watch the superyachts coming in and out, visit the
Annonciade art museum and wander the narrow streets.
Saint-Tropez can be intense in the summer. Its
tanned, pampered denizens parade around in a uniform
of sparkling white beach tunics, macramé bikinis and
pastel shorts, their hair swept back and a raffia
basket slung over one slender, tanned arm. Copycats
arrive on shiny motorbikes or in open-top sports
cars, but they are easy to spot - shabby St-Trop is a
hard look to pull off.
Sainte-Maxime may be Saint-Tropez's less showy little
sister but it still has the feel of a classy riviera
resort: it has its own casino and, as in other
places, men can be fined €38 for going shirtless away
from the beach. It's refreshing to find such an
unpretentious base on this stretch of coast - but fun
to be able to dip into the nearby glitz too.
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