Fréjus and Saint-Raphaël

During the October holiday I travelled to Fréjus by Flixbus to visit my friend Anne-Marie. Flixbus is a coach company that offers very good prices for travelling around Europe, which I knew about from when my friends and I travelled around Central-Eastern Europe in 2018.

Anne-Marie is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about the history of Fréjus, so on our drive back to her home we stopped by the Roman gate to the ancient port. This is considerably further inland than the modern port of Fréjus by about 2km. Underneath this gate are the archaeological remains of the Roman baths. Fréjus as a city has a huge problem with archaeological remains as whenever anyone decides to construct a new building, the diggers inevitably find archaeological remains and have to stop. However, the council doesn’t have enough money to put into preserving everything. This recently happened near the post office, underneath which is now a tourist site for Roman remains.

That evening we went to the cinema to watch the film Papicha. Directed by Mounia Meddour, it tells the story of a teenaged girl in Algeria with an interest in fashion as the Algerian Civil War begins around her. Although it was banned from being shown in Algeria, it was screened under the section Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, and has been selected as the Algerian entry for the Best International Film Award for next year’s Oscars. The story was incredibly moving. At the end of the film, there was an audience discussion which I listened to as best as I could and found quite interesting.

The next morning after breakfast we went for a walk on the coast of Saint-Raphael – the Sentier des Rochers. The path begins as concrete, before disappearing among the rocks which characterise the coastline, meaning eyes have to be firmly on the path in order to not fall over. We began at a little harbour when the morning was quite grey, and made it round to the other side of the coast from which I could see the Ile d’Or. This small island is a visible landmark of Agay, the little French village I often went to with family when I was younger, so it was a lovely familiar location from a different angle. On our return, the sun came out! Its light illuminated the red rocks and gave the southern French coast I know and love so much its colour back.

Later in the afternoon while she visited her mother, Anne-Marie deposited me on a sheltered rocky beach where I had a lovely view of the Ile d’Or and the mountains surrounding Agay again. Enjoying the last rays of the Indian summer with a couple of books, I settled down very happily for two hours, dipping my toes in the water every now and then.

Anne-Marie is a fantastic cook and was only too happy to showcase the best of French – or Swiss – cuisine on my stay. That evening we had raclette, a Swiss meal where you melt cheese on small tealight-heated platters and then eat it with potatoes and charcuterie. As my trip to Fréjus coincided with a sharp drop in temperatures at night, this kicked off feeling the autumnal coziness of the new season. Raclette also reminded me of birthday parties one particular friend threw where we ate raclette a few times. While it’s a lovely thing to do, I now realise it was mostly out of convenience – it means parents don’t have to cook a meal for six extra children!

My last morning was kicked off by reading on the main beach in Fréjus, this time with a fantastic little deckchair to sit on. Despite the cool air, the sun was still incredibly warm – enough so for me to put on suncream!

Following lunch, I had the afternoon free to explore Saint-Raphael myself while Anne-Marie was with her mother. I relished the opportunity to be set loose in the sunshine, taking the opportunity to dip into various shops as I went. As I wandered, I passed by the Basilique Notre-Dame-de-la-Victoire, one of the icons of Saint-Raphael, and made my way around the Vieux Port. Everywhere there are ice cream stalls, restaurants, boutiques, and tourist shops, all to enjoy in the warming sunshine.

We finished off my stay with a charity classical music concert in the Basilique, which was free entry. Naturally most of the seats with good views were taken, so we sat in one of the side pews at the front to get a sneaky good spot. However, these had been pushed back to make space for the choir and orchestra to stand. We spent the whole concert with our feet on the pews, sitting on the upright edge of it! The first piece of music was an arrangement of a toccata by Bach for the marimba, which was the most enjoyable piece of the whole concert. Rather unfortunately, most of the sopranos (whom we were sat next to) sang flat, as they were ladies of a certain age who wished to retain their youthful status by not admitting that their vocal range had diminished. It was a fun evening nonetheless, and Anne-Marie and I giggled our way through it all.

My stay overall was very enjoyable – Anne-Marie is a lovely host, and she went out of her way to enable me to do little things each day to make a holiday for me, for which I’m very grateful. I look forward to the next time I see her!

A plus,

Zoe x