5th July

Toulon  Sth France Temp 26c. Sunny.

Toulon is a city in southern France and a large military Harbour on the Mediterranean coast with a major French naval base. Toulon harbour is one of the best natural anchorages on the Mediterranean and one of the largest harbours in Europe. We arrived in the harbour at 7am but could not move into our berth until after 9am because a ferry boat was in there, There is a strike on in Marseille so cruise ship came to Toulon instead. We booked on the “Aix: The Heart of Provence” tour. We had to meet in the Princess Theatre at 9am but decided to go earlier so that we could get in one of the first buses. This is a good move because if you are in one of the later buses and there can be 6 or more buses there are queues at the toilet stops etc. We managed to get on bus number 1. Bev & Ian were due to come on the same tour but they both were feeling sick this morning so they pulled out. There was an hour and a half drive to get to Aix. We then went with our guide on a walking tour for about an hour and a half which we initially thought would be a long time but it was not because we had frequent stops and they were interesting. Aix is a typical French country town just like you see in the movies. The streets are narrow and there are lots of buildings with shuttered windows, wrought iron balconies and window boxes. As it was Saturday there were quite a lot of markets, some selling clothing, some fruit and veg and some flowers. Our walk was slightly up hill until we reached the Cathedral where our guide left us to walk back to the pickup point at our leisure. On the way back we had lunch at a nice open air restaurant. We shared a club sandwich and a banana crepe. Just as well we did because the sandwich was a triple decker and it came with salad and chips. Our pickup point was at a square where there was a huge Apple Shop which was just what I wanted because I needed another charger lead for our iPads. I also learned something else all Apple Shop have free Wi Fi. I was able to download the latest CMCA magazine which has 137 pages with pictures in about 10 minutes. I would need a day on the ship. Our drive back to the ship was via a different route which was also interesting. We got back at 6pm for a 6.30pm sail-a-way tired but happy. It was dinner in Horizon Court and a quiet time in the cabin tonight. Tomorrow we have Barcelona. Sent.

 Toulon Harbour

 Aix en Provence