There is a gorgeous sunrise as we are sailing into to La Seyne sur Mer, the cruise port across the water from Toulon. Once again, we’re right on time, and we are up and off the ship quickly on a search for the public shuttle boat that will take us to Toulon. We don’t really have much information on the boat, we know it is the 8M route and costs 2 euros each way, but where and when it docks, we’re not really sure. The ship gives out decent information on local shuttles though and their little port guide says it’s a 10-minute walk, located near the casino. Ok – we’re game. Off we go.
It’s a great morning for a walk, brisk, but not too cold, no rain, just overcast skies, so we get an additional morning walk in (in addition to the deck walk we took this morning as well). But we are totally flummoxed. We can’t find the boat dock anywhere. There are 4 others walking along trying to find it as well – but we just can’t seem to locate it. We end up asking these 2 sweet teens (who are doing morning exercises on the community weight machines in the park) if they can help. In their pidgin English and our (Ed’s) pidgin French, we figure out the boat dock is at the end of the big bridge near the town center. Ok – we’ll head there. But once at the bridge, there is nothing resembling a shuttle. Foiled!
The other couples peel off to find coffee. We do the same, ending up at this totally local joint where we grab 2 cappuccinos and strategize on what to do. The ship has an exorbitantly expensive boat shuttle into town, which at this point looks like our best bet. Since we can’t find hide nor hair of the darn local shuttle, we decide to give it up, stop the frustration and head back to the ship, pay our $25 each (highway – or waterway – robbery) and just do it. Hey, at least we got a really nice walk and good cappuccino out of it.
The ship shuttle thing works perfectly, we arrive back at the dock at the right time, hop right on the boat and off we go. We are let off in the middle of the town of Toulon, couldn’t ask for a better shuttle – except the cost! We had plans to walk up to the Old Royal fort at the end of the peninsula, but the walk isn’t at all what we expected. It is all on sidewalks through a very residential (and deserted residential at that) area, so we abort that destination and turn back into town.
Stopping for a cappuccino, we re-strategize our day. It is Sunday, which means virtually nothing is open. Only 2 museums are open, one of which we’ve been to before, no shops are open, and only some restaurants/cafes – mostly those on the waterfront that charge inflated tourist/waterfront prices. We had planned for this, but thought we’d spend time walking to the fort and the along the coastline, with that out of the picture, we need to burn more time before the Musee des Arts opens at noon.
We end up wandering through the daily market, which stretches pretty much the length of Cours Lafayette. The produce and food offered is beautiful, and cheap! Too bad we can’t take it back on the ship. The seafood? Oh, we are salivating and it is only 10:30 in the morning! Oh well. There are also trinket and clothing vendors, but we don’t have any need for anything, we’re just burning time.
Next we wander through town, finding the Opera house, the 2nd largest in France, then onto Place de la Liberte with the impressively huge Fontaine de la Liberte. Once there, we realize we are really close to the museum, so we wandered over, checking out the opening times (because we have come to understand that you can NOT trust Google for opening times – they are wrong more times than right). We’re relieved to see that indeed, the museum is open at noon. But it is barely 11:00, we need more time burning – and lunch. There does not appear to be any restaurants or cafes around, but we do spy a Carrefour across the street. Picnic time!
Bread, charcuterie, beer, water and wine for me to put into the bladder to take back aboard – perfect! We carry our haul over to the park next to the museum to find a place to eat. There are stone benches and seats, but also found a bunch of picnic benches. We started testing out different picnic benches to see which one’s were the driest, and the park maintenance guy saw us and gave us one of the huge plastic trash bags he had to put on the bench! So sweet! (And yes, I saved the bag for later use – you never know when it will come in handy!)
Picnic complete, wine in bladder, we still have time to burn, so we walk through the park, which is aptly named Jardin Alexandre the 1st. It’s a beautiful little park with terraces and seating areas, lovely statues, and a beautiful building called the Mediatheque Chalucet – some sort of a library that of course – is not open. Out front in the circular parking area leading to the garden is a huge monument to the people who lost their lives fighting for France in WWI and WWII. All in all, a very enjoyable way to waste an hour in this gorgeous weather.
Finally, the museum opens, and another bonus – it is free today! Love Sundays in Europe – we’ve encountered this a few times on Sundays. At any rate, the museum is really quite interesting – lots of different exhibits – one with photographs and paintings centering around Algiers, which was very engaging. There were mixed media displays, like this weird dragon/dinosaur made out of weird household debris – more tchotkes than debris, like toy soldiers and plastic plants – pictures would have been helpful!
There was a nice terrace where we could take pictures of the actual building housing the museum, which was beautiful architecturally.
And that’s that. We wandered around a bit, taking in the scenery, found this great 3D boat mural, a street full of paper or plastic colored butterflies hanging overhead, great street scenes, the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame-de-la-Seds, the Église Saint François de Paule – the church on the corner of the Cours Lafayette and the square that was filled with priests and parishioners when we first arrived, but now is virtually empty. From there it is a quick hop, skip and a jump to the shuttle dock where we wait a bit in line then board the shuttle.
Back on board, we loll about the balcony, the weather is fantastic! 70 degrees, sunny. Just lovely. And the bonus being that while we loll outside, we get great views of Toulon as we sail away. Besides being a lovely Southern France town, Toulon is also a huge military naval base (we actually heard reveille this morning from our balcony!) and we end up passing all the ships in port as we start to sail out. Oh and I get a really good shot of the blasted fort that we never got to – looks great, but, we had a great day without it!
Buffet again tonight – why not? The food is really good, and typically the same as the main dining room, with additions they don’t have. And we can pick our portions. Tonight there is excellent fried chicken, a crab cake and a weirdly good hush puppy. Ed called it more like a smashed puppy! Tasted good though. There is also always salad. Ed had a yummy beef and mushroom stew and chicken parmesan and cioppino. And of course, we have Ruben, our waiter up there who always brings us our drinks. We’re happy.
Production show tonight which was excellent. We’ve seen it before, but it is still good. The singers and dancers are wonderful (and there are so many of them! We are so used to Azamara, it is sort of a shock to the system to see 15+ people up there on that huge stage!). Then, of course, broken record – to the Pool bar for our last drinks and then to the balcony. Hey – make use of it while we have it!
Andiamo 