Musée de l’Annonciade
Some consider this small art museum, in a deconsecrated chapel, one of the best modem collections on the Riviera.
In addition to the usual suspects – Matisse, Dufy, Utrillo and Vlaminck – the museum houses works by Van Dongen, Bonnard, Braque, Roualt, Signac, Seurat, Camoin and others. Place Grammont.
Admission: adults €5.35, children €3.10. Open every day except Tuesdays. Summer, 10 am to 1 pm and 3 to 11 pin; winter, 10 am to noon and 2 to 6 pm.
Porte de la Poissonnerie
Next to the tourist office on Quai Jean Jaurès, this is both a gateway to the old town and a small market hail. Mosaic fish dance around the ceiling while a market, selling the real thing, spreads out everyday on the marble slabs below (closed winter Mondays).
Walk through the Porte de la Poissonnerie to the adjoining Place aux Herbes, a sweet little square where a vegetable, fruit and flower market is a centuries-old tradition.
Rue Gambetta
Once known as Grande Rue, this street is lined with the great 17th- and 18th-century mansions of wealthy merchants and shipbuilders. The towering palm trees they planted still line the route. The 18th-century Misericorde chapel on this street is one of the few land- mark buildings in St. Tropez. Rue Gambetta opens up on the plane tree shaded Place des Lices.
Place des Lices
If it isn’t a market day you might well wonder what all the fuss is about. The expansive plaza, with its even rows of shade trees and groups of old men playing pétanque (the Provence version of boules) can seem dusty and desolate. But come Tuesday and Saturday mornings, the atmosphere takes off with a huge and lively traditional market.
Traders and shoppers come from miles around. In between forays among the stalls, grab a pew at one of the sidewalk cafés and watch the scene.
The Citadelle
The fortress overlooking St. Tropez was started in the 16th century, and expanded or rebuilt every century since. First created to protect the town from a Spanish or Savoyard invasion during religious wars between Catholics and Protestants, the Citadelle played a role in a list of conflicts and disputes that only the most avid local history buff could keep track of. A small museum explains some of it and there are good views of the town and the old port.
During the summer, guided visits are conducted in English. From the tourist information office, follow Rue de la Citadelle to Montée de la Citadelle. Open every day, but closed on Tuesdays in November. April 1 to October 30, open 10 am to 12:30 pm and 1 to 6:30 pm; November 1 to March 31, closes at 5:30 pm. Guided visits in English, Mondays and Fridays during July and August at 4.30pm.
La Glaye and La Ponche
Side-by-side, these two areas reflect what is left of the original fishing village that first attracted artists, filmmakers and celebrities. Anse de la Glaye is a sheltered cove that extends between the Tour Portalet and the Tour Vieille, both remnants of the town’s 15th-century defences.
It’s a lovely area for walking the Coastal Pathway, narrowly hemmed in by the sea on one side and the pastel houses, with their shuttered windows, on the other. La Glaye means “church” in a Genoese dialect and it is here, in one of the oldest areas of St. Tropez, that Genoese shipbuilders settled.
The town hall now occupies the place where St. Tropez’s first church once stood.
West of the Tour Vieille, La Ponche is a tiny fishing port which was the site of a small fish salting industry. Walk the narrow lanes of these districts to get a real feel for the town that still exists beneath the hurly burly.
Provence & the Cote D’Azur Travel Guide
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