Saint-Tropez has a reputation that dates from the 1950s, when Brigitte Bardot filmed Et Dieu créa la femme there and Roger Vadim transformed a fishing village into a myth. That reputation has accumulated for seventy years and is now so heavy that it conceals the town. The reality of Saint-Tropez is more interesting and more diverse than the myth.
There is the Saint-Tropez of Pampelonne in July — the yachts, the beach clubs, the sports cars on the cobbled alleyways, the constant noise of something happening elsewhere. And there is the Saint-Tropez of the Tuesday and Saturday market on the Place des Lices, the alleyways of the old town climbing toward the citadel, the café terraces where the locals have been playing pétanque for as long as the locals have been playing pétanque.
The market at the Place des Lices is one of the great markets of Provence. It takes place on Tuesday and Saturday mornings and occupies the entire square — vegetables, flowers, cheeses, charcuterie, olives, soap, clothing, bric-a-brac. The prices are those of a local market, not a tourist one. The sellers have been the same for years. To arrive at eight in the morning, before the crowds settle, with time to buy tomatoes and goat's cheese and then sit at the Café des Arts with a coffee and a newspaper — this is a way of being in Saint-Tropez that appears in no guide.
Pampelonne is a long sandy beach stretching several kilometres south of the town. This is where the famous beach clubs are — Club 55, Nikki Beach, Moorea — and where most of the summer's upscale tourism is concentrated. But there are other beaches. La plage des Graniers, below the citadel, accessible on foot from the town. La plage de la Bouillabaisse, on the northern side, less frequented. And above all the calanques that begin at Cap Taillat and stretch toward Ramatuelle — accessible by boat from the port.
The best villas in Saint-Tropez are on the heights of Ramatuelle — close enough to everything, far enough from the noise.
The best villas in Saint-Tropez are on the heights of Ramatuelle, in the private estates that overlook Pampelonne. From there, one sees the beach and the sea from a private terrace, and one drives down to the beach in five minutes when desired. This is the ideal combination — the intimacy and tranquillity of a perched property, with immediate access to everything that makes Saint-Tropez unique.
