Skip to main content
Vidalumi

France

St. Tropez, France

Saint-Tropez: Fishing Port Turned Riviera Harbor

Saint-Tropez, a town of about 3,600 residents on the gulf that shares its name, was a military stronghold and fishing village until the 20th century and became a resort known around the world only in the late 1950s. Cruise ships cannot come alongside here: they anchor offshore and bring passengers in by tender, so allow time for the boat ride at both ends of the day.

Good to know

Arriving in Saint-Tropez

The old town is small and easily covered on foot from where the tenders come in, and the tourist office is on Quai Jean Jaurès in the old port.

  • The harbor has two basins, the old port and the new, with moorings for about 800 boats.
  • Passenger boats link the harbor with Sainte-Maxime, Port Grimaud, Saint-Raphaël, Cannes, Nice and other ports along the coast.
  • From June to September the roads into town are heavily congested, and its streets are narrow and full of people on foot.

Saint-Tropez on Your Own

A morning on foot can take in the harbor, the old fishermen's quarter of La Ponche and the climb to the citadel, with a stop on Place des Lices on the way back. For more, the coastal path heads east along the shore toward quiet coves.

  • The harbor: Two towers from the town walls approved in 1470 still stand, one at the end of the Grand Môle and the other at the entrance to La Ponche.
  • La Ponche: The old fishermen's harbor is now a beach, where scenes of And God Created Woman were filmed.
  • The citadel: From the foot of its ramparts on the hill above town you look over the rooftops, the gulf and the Maures hills. It houses the maritime history museum. Check opening hours before you go.
  • Place des Lices: This big square of pale sand, shaded by plane trees more than a hundred years old, is where people play boules.
  • Musée de l'Annonciade: The art museum at 2 rue de l'Annonciade, near the harbor, is housed in a chapel built around 1510.
  • The coastal path: The path toward the Baie des Canebiers is an easy walk with quiet beaches along the way. The whole stretch to Plage de Tahiti is about 12.5 km, roughly three and a half hours.
  • Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. A ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own.
  • Carry ID: In France you must be able to prove your identity when asked, so keep your passport or an accepted ID with you.

Food and Drink

The town's own sweet is the tarte tropézienne, a split brioche filled with two creams and topped with pearl sugar, created in Saint-Tropez in the 1950s by the Polish-born baker Alexandre Micka. Rosé wines are popular across Provence.

  • Brigitte Bardot, filming in the town, is said to have suggested the cake's name, and Micka's original shop is still open.
  • Cafés along the harbor charge high prices, and a street or two inland the food is often as good for a little less.

Tipping in France

Tips are not expected in France, because the cost of service is included by law in menu prices. The currency is the euro.

  • A tip is a thank-you for outstanding service, not an obligation.
  • When people do tip, they often just round the bill up.

The Bravades and the Painters

Twice a year Saint-Tropez holds a bravade, with processions, fifes and drums and volleys of musket fire: in mid-May for its patron saint, Torpes, and on June 15 to mark the town militia's victory over Spanish galleys in 1637. The captain who leads the May bravade has been elected each Easter Monday since 1558.

  • During the May bravade, the statue of the saint is carried out of the church and through the streets to the sound of bells, fifes and drums and the bang of blunderbusses.
  • The parish church, Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, keeps a bust of the saint surrounded by old bravade blunderbusses, and a statue on its front shows him as a Roman centurion.
  • The painter Paul Signac arrived in 1892 and drew friends such as Matisse, Bonnard and Marquet after him, and their work hangs in the Musée de l'Annonciade.
  • The old gendarmerie, the setting for Louis de Funès's Gendarme films of 1964 to 1982, opened in 2016 as a museum of the gendarmerie and of cinema.

A Brief History

In antiquity a Greek trading post here, known as Athenopolis, belonged to Marseille, and the town takes its present name from Torpes, an early Christian martyr whose body, legend says, came ashore here in a boat. From the late ninth century, pirates and raiders attacked the coast for about a hundred years.

  • From 890 to 972 Saint-Tropez and its surroundings were part of a Muslim colony centered on Fraxinet, inland.
  • Genoese families brought by Raphaël de Garezzio resettled the town and were exempt from taxes until 1672. In 1470 Garezzio was allowed to build the town walls and two large towers.
  • The first fortification on the hill where the citadel stands went up in 1583.
  • In 1615 a Japanese delegation led by the samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga, on its way to Rome, was forced into Saint-Tropez by the weather, in what may have been the first contact between France and Japan.
  • Pierre André de Suffren, a vice-admiral who fought in the American Revolutionary War, came from the family that held the lordship of Saint-Tropez.
  • On August 15, 1944, the Allied landings in Provence began, and Saint-Tropez was the first town in Provence to be liberated. A plaque on the old port marks the event.
  • German troops blew up the quays on the morning of the landings, and the harbor had to be rebuilt.
  • The 1956 film And God Created Woman, shot here, drew international attention to the town and helped make its harbor a summer port for yachts.
  • To learn more ashore: the maritime history museum inside the citadel on the hill above the old town.

Saint-Tropez with Children

Saint-Tropez is small, so a family day can stay on foot, with a beach close to the old town and a fortress to explore on the hill. In summer the town is at its busiest, so start early.

  • Younger children: Two beaches lie inside the old village itself, so a paddle needs no transport.
  • School age: The citadel's ramparts and its maritime museum suit children who like forts and ships.
  • Teenagers: Fans of the Gendarme comedies can visit the film museum in the old police station where they were shot.

Beaches

Saint-Tropez itself has public beaches along its 12 km of coast, from La Bouillabaisse at the western edge to Les Salins at the eastern tip. Pampelonne, the long sandy beach south of town, belongs to neighboring Ramatuelle.

  • La Ponche and La Fontanette are in the old village, and Les Graniers and the long Plage des Canebiers lie further along the shore.
  • La Moutte and Les Salins are at the eastern end of the peninsula.
  • Along Pampelonne, each stretch of beach has its own beach hut, with private or public sunbathing areas, and many rent windsurfing, sailing and canoeing gear. Some beaches are naturist.
  • Pampelonne was one of the beaches where Allied troops came ashore in August 1944.
  • The D93 road, the Route des Plages, leads to Pampelonne.
Traveler photos

Photos from travelers

Reviews

Traveler reviews

Be the first to share your experience.

Suggest an edit

See something missing or incorrect?