St Raphael

This is a beautiful port with shops and restaurants all built around the large marina. It is a short walk to town along a wide promenade that hugs the seashore. The French love small dogs and it is quite common to see the proud owners of the goofiest dogs walking along the shore. Restaurants and shops selling discounted designer clothes spill out onto the broad stone-laid walkway. Old men are playing bocce ball on hard packed sand covered parks. We sit and watch them for a while trying to figure out the strategy and rules of the game. The only thing we could definitely agree on is you had to be over 65 to play the sport and you usually had to say something disappointing in French after each toss. There is great camaraderie amongst the group that looks like their lives are centered around this social activity. There is a beautiful church that commands the skyline with a large Madonna and Child sheathed in gold leaf that shimmers in the sunlight. The inside of the church is quite simple and doesn’t seem to fit the grandee dios expectations of the outside. I finally found a place to get my haircut and all my bleached out from the summer sun hair fell at the hands of the barber.