1. Olives at the market
2. Break time
3. Lunch
4. The beach
We arrived at Toulon, France at 8:00 am and we were off the ship by 8:30. What a delightful town of 160,000.
This town was founded by the Phoenicians in 600 BC!! What an amazing history. We were told that Toulon is located on the most beautiful and well-protected natural harbor in Europe and has been, and continues to be, a center for the French Navy. This is the French Riviera and the tempteture is perfect here. 80 degrees with a light breeze.
Because the harbor holds so many military ships, we had to dock quite a ways from the main center and then take a shuttle bus 20 minutes. Then we hopped on a tourist tram for a brief tour of the area and stopped at the town’s center.
We headed first for the”Porvencal Market” the city’s giant outdoor food and produce market. In addition, there was a lot of “stuff” in open air stalls for us to see. The market probable took the equivalent of 10 – 12 city blocks.
Along the way we stopped into see their main church, the Saint-Louis Church. This and many of the city’s landmarks were bombed during World War II but have been re-built.
It was then lunch time so we ate at a wonderful sea-side restaurant overlooking the harbor and all the huge yachts. We had a local version of a pizza, served with French fries – it was really good.
Then it was back on the tram for a trip to one of their beaches and a couple of hours in the sun. The beach was wonderful, except the only problem was the tram to take us back to the ship’s bus was late. We arrived at the shuttle bus back to the ship with only 5 minutes to spare! We then arrived at the ship 15 minutes before it was to sail – we cut it much, much too close.Tonight was formal night so it was time to put on a tuxedo and long dress and enjoy the evening’s company. This ship is wonderful in that probably 99% of the people dress for dinner – everyone is very elegant and we really enjoy people watching before dinner.
We had a wonderful dinner, saw a show that was just ok and then went to the casino. Ed lost and Barb won but the night was still fun and we are both ahead for the cruise and hoping to stay that way.
