At Cynthia and Ian's apartment in Bandol (photo by Cynthia Gillespie-Smith
I visited the town of Bandol on the Mediterranean Sea a few weeks ago when I was going to French school in Aix-en-Provence. Our friends Cynthia and Ian (the former owners of La Bastide Vieille, the house we rented when we lived in Provence) now have an apartment there and were so great to take me in for a weekend. I loved Bandol so much that I wanted Charley and Kelly to see it too. Even though we're housesitting, it isn't a problem to have a night away once or twice, and we decided we'd like to make the trip down to the sea. Cynthia found a little hotel for us right on the ocean.
And so off we went on Wednesday morning-- a vacation from our vacation! Bandol was about two hours from our house... I think it might have been less if we had taken a slightly different route, as traffic was slow through Pertuis. But Bandol is very easy to get to... just a couple of miles off the autoroute. We arrived at the Splendid Hotel right at 11 am. This is a little two star hotel on the Anse de Rènecros, a pretty circular cove off the Baie de Bandol lined with beach.
The beach at Rènecros. The Hotel Splendid is the tall white building on the left.
Our room was small and simple-- actually two adjoining rooms, one with a single bed for Kelly-- but it was clean and extremely convenient, and a good place to sleep. And we did have a view of the beach from our sunny bathroom. Best of all, there was a very nice terrace that looked out over the cove, and we could take steps down to the beach and be there in just two minutes.
We were lucky to be able to get in our room as soon as we arrived, so we headed out to take a look at Bandol and find a place to eat. We decided to eat down on the quai, with the view across the boats and the sea. We actually ended up eating at the same place where I'd had lunch with Cynthia and Ian. Charley and Kelly don't eat seafood and Charley eats only a little fish, so this meal was really for me. I had moules frites, one of my favorite French dishes. Kelly had an entrecôte steak and Charley had the plat du jour fish.
Moules frites-- one of my favorites!
After lunch it was beach-time for Kelly and me. (We had actually traveled in our bathing suits, in case we weren't able to check into our room until later.) Charley is very fair skinned, so he visited the tourist office and then read up on the shady hotel terrace.
The beaches here are all much smaller and more crowded than the miles of beaches we are used to in North and South Carolina. And many of the beaches are rocky, though this beach at Rènecros was sandy. We spread our blanket out in a place that wasn't too close to other people, though as the water kept creeping forward, we had to move our blanket back and our little piece of beach got even smaller. Kelly swam a bit in the water, but I was there to sunbathe. About half the women on the beach were sunbathing topless, and it seems very comfortable and natural. I might have thought that I was not the right shape to sunbathe topless, but it didn't seem to matter. (But just in case anyone is wondering... I didn't...)
We did some shopping at the seafront shops on our way to Cynthia and Ian's. Charley was wearing a striped polo shirt that seemed awfully hot and didn't look very Mediterranean. We bought him a crisp white button shirt, and he wore it out of the store. I think he looked much better!
We arrived at Cynthia and Ian's about 5:15 pm, just in time to watch the end of the Tour de France stage for the day. The view from their apartment is just as special as it was a few weeks ago-- but totally different from the equally special view they enjoyed here in the Luberon. Charley and Kelly got the tour of the new apartment, and we had drinks and snacks and visited with these good friends. They hadn't seen Kelly for over two years and were amazed at how much she has changed... she's now taller than both of them!
Cynthia and Ian are still enjoying the excitement of their new life in Bandol. Ian told us that Bandol has 320 days of sun per year. It's an absolutely lovely place, with a wide view of the sea. In the evening you can see the big cruise ships in the distance, perhaps traveling from Marseille to Nice or some other port.
Kelly with Cynthia and Ian
Later we all walked down to have dinner at a restaurant near the church (Le Desperate) with brightly-colored tables out on the street. This time I had Noix St. Jacques in a sauce that was wonderful. Charley and Kelly both had entrecôte steaks. Ian had steak tartare, a French dish I'm not too sure about! There are many restaurants to choose from in Bandol. After dinner there was music in the main square, a one-man-band performer who was quite good and really got the audience involved. We hugged Cynthia and Ian goodbye there in the square... we'll see then again in a week or so, when they come to stay with us in the Luberon.
On Thursday we got an early start, as we had to check out of our room at 11 am. We walked down to the main square to have our petit déjeuner. It's a beautiful place near a fountain (perhaps a natural spring), with the tables set out under the shady plane trees. At the bottom of the square the small daily market was already in operation, and beyond the square is the waterfront and the port. There are 1600 boats docked here-- big yachts, sailboats, and fishing boats.
Kelly and I wanted another hour on the beach, and at 9:30 we found it much less populated than it had been the afternoon before. Charley found a shady spot to watch Kelly swim out to the raft and dive off a couple of times, while I read and sunbathed on some rocks. I would have enjoyed staying much longer. Then we went back to our room to change. We packed our little overnight bags and stowed them in the car for a few more hours.
I also wanted Charley and Kelly to see the little Île of Bendor, just a seven minute ferry ride from the main docks at Bandol. We walked around the island and watched a variety of water sports-- scuba diving, snorkeling, and then sailing. We decided to have lunch at an appealing beachfront cafe with a view back across to Rènecros. I had moules frites again. Kelly and Charley had sandwiches and fries. We watched two children swimming in the sea, just on the other side of our table. The little boy caught a small octopus and the girl caught a sea urchin. Kelly and I took lots of photos on Bendor; here are just a few:
Kelly on the rocks at Bendor
Sailboats off the coast of Bendor (photo by Kelly)
More boats at Bendor (photo by Kelly)
We had lunch on Bendor under these blue striped awnings (photo by Kelly)
All too soon it was time to leave Bandol. We'd had a weekend escape, even though it was the middle of the week, and we felt like we had been there much longer than twenty-five hours. And we all agreed that we really, really liked Bandol. I'm very sure we'll visit there again.
P.S. Kelly asked me to say "Merci Beaucoup!" to eveyrone who sent her birthday wishes. And she really appreciated all the positive comments about her photography. She has a good eye!
