We didn't really plan on going up to France before wintering in Barcelona, but my sister Juliana and her husband Mike were spending a week in a fancy hotel on the French Riviera. After a week in the hotel, they were to depart Nice for a Windstar sailing cruise. Since we were in Mallorca, it seemed the least that we could do to sail the 325 miles to rack up my sister's room service bill. Cruising in France had never been high on our list - rumors of tight anchorages, fierce weather, expensive marinas and a generally unfriendly population had us looking elsewhere for our cruising grounds. At the very least, we reasoned, since we were going off-season (mid-October), we would avoid the worst of the crowds that always flock to the area in summer.

Track from Mallorca to St. Tropez.

We departed in calm conditions with a close eye on the Gulf de Lyon to the north. The gulf has a fearsome reputation for Mistral winds that come whistling down out of the Pyrenees, blowing hard and long without much warning. We had heard tales of the Mistral blowing at 50 knots for a week. Thankfully, instead of a raging Mistral, we got some decent easterlies for the ride to Southern France. We had some pressing business that demanded Internet and a fax, so we sailed right past the beautiful but unwired Port Cros Islands, and made our first French landfall in St. Tropez.

It's easy to see why the rich and famous like St. Tropez.

St. Tropez was easily able to live up to its considerable hype. It is a beautiful village nestled in a well protected bay with a large (and expensive) harbor. Since the weather was settled, we decided to anchor just outside the harbor in 15 feet of clear water with a white sand bottom. After dispatching our business issues, we toured the city and dove headfirst into French food heaven. Roasted chicken with garlic and veggies at a street stand, buckwheat crepes with spicy sausage and eggs, ice cream, and of course pain au chocolate for breakfast. Add a bottle of inexpensive French wine and a baguette to any meal and it turns into a feast. We toured an art exhibit on a castle overlooking the city; modern sculpture was displayed outdoors in full view of the glittering Mediterranean.

We roamed the town by day and enjoyed the peaceful anchorage by night. We really enjoyed the Boulle games played in the village square in the afternoons. There are similar versions of this very social game throughout the Med. The game seems to encourage wild personalities and spirited arguments amongst the players. We watched the same groups over a few days and got to know some of the intricacies of the game.

Boulle in the St. Tropez village square.

Juan Les Pins

Acting on the advice from some French friends, we beat 35 miles up the coast to Juan Les Pins, a beach town just south of Antibes. We were told by our friends that this town has all of the charm of the French Riviera, but toned down a bit for families. We left Cannes to port and anchored in a well protected and nearly deserted bay. Now that we were hopelessly addicted to French food, our first order of business was to find a good restaurant. We discovered a family-run bistro right on the beach so we could sit with our toes in the sand as the girls roamed the waterfront within our sight.

Our headquarters in Juan Les Pins.

While I was walking by the beach I was hailed by an English gent who said, "I would like another cappuccino please". I was sorely tempted to answer in my best Pepe Le Pue accent that we don't serve steenking toureessts here. After we sorted out that I was not skilled enough to be the waiter, I joined him for a cappuccino and discovered that he was here with his family, which happened to include two young daughters. Our families got together that evening for dinner, and our girls had their first sleepover in ages at their hotel.

Villefranch

The next stop is Villefranch, which is a large horseshoe-shaped bay near my sister's hotel, the Beaulieu-Sur-Mer. We hugged the coast and sailed past some beautiful towns and villages. Just past the famous city of Nice we ducked into Villefranch bay which is well protected from everything except for southerlies. The bay only had a few boats swinging at anchor, and we had our choice of spots in the shade of the mansions that lined the hills above. We chose a spot close to a staircase that we hoped would lead us to the Beaulieu-Sur-Mer, which we calculated as about a half-mile hike.

Villefranch.

The family reunion went very well, with taco dinners on Zia and sleepovers for the girls in the fancy hotel. How fancy was the hotel Beaulieu-Sur-Mer? Let me put it this way. When we saw on the room service menu a club sandwich at 75 Euro ($100US) we agreed that eating on the boat was a good policy. We decided that we should sail my sister and her husband into Nice harbor and drop them off so that they could start their Windstar cruise in style.

Nice

We made the 2-mile passage in minutes, and when I called the harbor master from the center of the harbor, I got a testy reply to the effect that you must request permission to enter the harbor before just barging in. Whoops. I asked if there was a spot to drop our passengers before we left and we were directed to a nice floating dock near the cruise ships. It was such a pretty place that I pedaled over to the harbor masters office with my hat in hand to ask if we might stay a few days. He turned out to be a great guy by the name of Cedric, and he offered us the spot we were already in for a mere 35 euro per day - including free WiFi.

We got Juliana and Mike on board the Windstar and they finagled us a tour of the ship. The Windstar is marketed as a small, personal-sized cruise ship - sure! It was huge but it was indeed a sailboat, albeit a luxurious one with a half dozen bars and a casino.

Nice harbor from the aft deck of the Windstar.

I can't say how well she will go to weather but I can guess that most of the passengers could care less. The sails are all computer-controlled and run by hydraulics.

Windstar sailing from Nice.

We set about exploring Nice, and that means finding a great restaurant, of course. We discovered a little bistro in the old town section that looked good. It turned out to be so good we ate two dinners and a lunch there. The photo is of the typical menu, which changes with the whims of the chef.

We started looking for a weather window to head back to Barcelona and were not disappointed that we had to wait a few days in Nice harbor for some rough weather to clear out.

In the middle of the night I was almost jolted out of my bunk by a frantic rocking of the boat. I jumped on deck to see a monstrous cruise ship docking just yards from our bow. Thankfully all the lines held and the rest of the family slept through it. In the morning we were literally in the shade of this behemoth.

Finally the weather window opened, and we laid in a course back to Barcelona. The winds were light but at least they were not adverse. We found France to be a great cruising ground and we plan on coming back in the springtime if we can work it in. Had we allowed ourselves to be deterred by all of the negative stories and rumors, we never would have spent those lovely weeks cruising the French Riviera.

We made the trip back to Barcelona in 48 straight hours, wondering all the while how we were going to survive without our French food fix. I guess we will have to put France back on the list for resuming our cruise in the spring.