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Everyone's heard of Saint Tropez, the French Riviera seaside playground of the rich and famous. We are neither, but I was keen to check it out anyway :P We thought it'd be a fabulous idea to mingle with the *ahem* upper crust of society and soak it all in, not to mention laze about on the beach and jump into the beautiful ocean. Inside the nautical-looking La Plage Des Jumeaux  A glass of Cassis wine  Bread with an olive pesto (delish)  We ordered a (giant) pot of mussels and fries. The mussels came perfectly cooked - bitey and springy and with a lovely subtle flavour. They were regular-sized shells but small mussels, is this normal in France? I'm used to Australian mussels which are huge and fat, larger than an oyster. Loved 'em though, and those fries were fantastic. Then again, when do I EVER dislike fries? ;) The Grilled fish was their "Le Plat du jour" (dish of the day) and didn't disappoint. Beautifully browned and crisp on the outside, tender and flakey on the inside. Lovely. FANTASTIC mussels and fries  A lovely fresh grilled fish  And of course... Tarte Tropézienne. Whilst Marseille has its Bouillabaisse, St Tropez has its Tarte Tropézienne! It's a simple cake dessert that is executed so perfectly I always have to order it when I see it. And yes, it's what I often get when I'm eating at La Gerbe D'Or in Australia... .so I was very keen to try the true-blue authentic version in Saint Tropez itself :) Verdict? Freakin' EXCELLENT!! Fluffy brioche with sandwiching a thick layer of crème patissière and butter cream.... how can you possibly go wrong with that combination? It was served chilled so the cream was like a rich ice cream.. and it was flat out delicious. I must find a place in Shanghai that does this, and does it well. So far I haven't seen it :( Tarte Tropézienne!  What the outside deck is like, when it's not raining  Picture perfect! *envy*  And after that, we left Saint Tropez. Apart from the lovely lunch, it was totally fruitless, uneventful, and just pissed us off ;) Hard to believe and we felt like we stepped into an alternate universe, because Saint Tropez is famous for sun, sea and surf!! All we got was rain and shocking traffic. Boooo.. such bad luck :(
Whilst in Marseilles, we just had to go on a cruise around the Calanques, since the weather was totally perfect and the sea a sparkling jeweled turquoise. The Calanques are deep narrow inlets of water in the high rocky white-coloured cliffs along the coast between Marseilles and Cassis, and were formed by rivers flowing into the sea many moons ago. The contrast of the high white rocks and dark turquoise sparkling ocean is magnificent, and many have little harbours or little beaches in each alcove - so cute!! On ze boat!  Casting off from the harbour  A video of me on the boat, about to set sail HEY PEEPS  This is Château d'If, made famous by "The Count of Monte Cristo"  Gorgeous scenery  Rich people in yachts  Back on land, we had a lovely meal at a random cafe we stumbled upon, which was situated in a small courtyard with a water fountain in the middle. It was fairly good value for money as the portions were large. Though we must have looked rather comical, as Chris ordered the Chicken breast and spinach salad (very fresh and delish, esp with the ratatouille on top!) and I sat with my giant platter of Veal with pasta, heh. I don't care though, because my dish was AWESOME!!!! So creamy, so tasty, so freakin' fantastic. In the courtyard area of Marseille port  A chicken breast and spinach salad  Veal with pasta - I ADORED this!!  A big fat 'ol ice cream for dessert  A bit random, but I caved and NEEDED A BURGER. So we got this. It was only average :( 
Bouillabaisse. This is a Provençal dish that is famous and synonymous with the South of France.. in particular Marseilles as that's where it's said to originate. It's a fish stew that is made with fresh local fish, shellfish, vegetables and Provençal herbs and spices. Quite frankly, you can't replicate it at home because of the local ingredients needed for this dish, and I don't think I'd dare to attempt it because it doesn't look easy ;) At Chez Loury  Pretty blue and white decor  Toasted bread with this INCREDIBLE rouille (mayonnaise made from olive oil, garlic, saffron, cayenne pepper)  Chez Loury is a tiny nook of a cafe, in the midst of a hundred others along the Vieux-Port (harbour). Their little outdoor terrace seats around 15 people and their menu is small. We don't really care, because we already know what we're having ;) I should note here that the staff don't speak a word of English. They did assign us an English-speaking waitress later, but she was quite indifferent and rather pushy, not as good as the French-speaking male waiters. In fact, it was here that we made a mistake - she insisted the Bouillabaisse was "FOR ONE PERSON ONLY" and we'd need to order another course instead of sharing the dish. Let me clarify first by saying I have a pretty big appetite - maybe around the size of a big Aussie guy's appetite or so? Anyway, after asking her again if she was sure, we decided to order the Bouillabaisse, as well as another main course. BIGGGGG MISTAKE!!!!! Considering both Chris and I have fairly giant appetites, we nearly fainted and killed ourselves trying to finish the meal. It would've been more than sufficient if we had just shared the Bouillabaisse. I honestly don't know how other regular couples with regular appetites can handle this if she also cornered them into ordering 2 dishes. You know why.......? The Bouillabaisse came out in THREE COURSES. I picked the Bouillabaisse traditionnelle for myself, and it came out as follows:
Bouillabaisse course #1 - Soupe de Poissons  Bouillabaisse course #2 - Soup with Saint Pierre, Rascasse, Baudroie fishes  Bouillabaisse course #3 - Soup with Vive, Galinette, Fielas fishes  Chris was a bit smarter, and opted for the Whole grilled fish. It was delicious. So simple, but well executed. It was just a whole fish, grilled to perfection, and filleted at your table. Add a squeeze of lemon and you've got yourself a perfectly fresh fish. Don't be like Chris and ask for more of that rouille mayonnaise to dip the fish into - he was met with a horrified look by the waitress for trying to bastardize the flavour of the fish ;) A whole fish that they filleted for us. Lovely, simple, fresh.  I was feeling quite woozy from fish, fish and more fish by this point... so decided I needed DESSERT :D We picked a white chocolate and milk chocolate cake, which sounded enticing on the menu but came out tasting rather ordinary in reality. It was pretty pricey as well, so I would not recommend it. A chocolate cake dessert  Stuffed to the brim with FISH, we walked around the Vieux-Port afterwards where the weather was lovely and cool. It was a delicious meal and yes, the Bouillabaisse truly is a stellar dish that I don't think can be replicated easily.. but if you go, get that Bouillabaisse traditionnelle to share between 2 people and top it off with a shared Starter and Dessert, and I guarantee both of you will be full afterwards ;) Night markets around the Marseille Vieux-Port area  Lighthouse in the picturesque sunset 
And so we hit........ MARSEILLES, another town in the South of France! The pretty front door (which is hidden behind all those leaves) of La Petite Maison  It's a bed & breakfast, a lady's big house that she rents 3 bedrooms out. This is the living room!  Staircase up to the bedrooms  Our spacious room. So fun to stay in a little French house :P  Other side of the room  Tiffany & Co coloured bathroom, hehe  Our own lil balcony  Chris found this and thought it was funny; the French watching Chinese movies :P  Here's a funny little story about the French. They love their breads. And boy, do they know how to appreciate good pastries and croissants! To us, we buy croissants and chuck 'em in the fridge, and eat them over a few days (microwave'd back up). That's normal, right? Apparently NOT! See, we were to leave at 7AM (!) after a few days at the bed & breakfast. Thinking it'd be too early for Alix, our host, to make us breakfast, we asked "Do you have any leftover croissants and we can just keep it in our room, and eat it in the morning before we leave?" Alix looked at us, confuddled. I repeated the question. It then dawned on her what we were asking and - QUEL HORRORS - the look on her face was priceless!!!!! She was in complete disbelief and repeated, "you want a croissant and you eat it tomorrow?? NON NON NON!" It was then that we learned that the French have their croissants FRESH daily... and not left over from the night before. Hahahaha! So she refused to give us day-old croissants, and went out to the bakery at 6AM(!!!) on the day we left to get us proper fresh croissants. What a lovely lady :) But so funny! It was an interesting lesson we learned that day, and certainly very memorable :) In the breakfast room having a traditional French breakfast  Check out the spread! There were 5-6 different types of jams.. mmmm....  Going down to the Port harbour area  Monument #1  Monument #2  View towards the port 
We spent yet another day puttering around the South of France visiting little villages and poking our noses this way and that. What a relaxed and laid back life these people live! And we were constantly amazed at the DELICIOUS food here. We love seafood and the Provence region does it simply spectacularly. Extremely fresh seafood, delicately cooked to perfection, and reasonably priced to boot. I love how the French can throw together a few ingredients and come up with something simple yet stunning. How do they do this?? Hullo from Lacoste!  Video of me on the top of Lacoste The people in the South of France must be really fit, given all the stairs they always have to climb!  Peekaboo!  Some grapes(?) along the way to Manerbes  Al fresco dining in Manerbes  A fantastic lemonade-sort of drink  Delicious fresh fish, butter rice, and ratatouille  Tartine with grilled vegetables - this was giant, haha  A very awesome apple tart  Enjoying the view  Really tall sunflowers. OK fine, they were only as tall as I am ;)  It doesn't look like it in this pic, but the sunflowers were as big as our faces!  Pretty little daisies 
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