Beach Day at St.-Cyr-sur-Mer
by Céleste | May 24, 2015
We spent Sunday the 24th at the beach of St.-Cyr-sur-Mer, which is in the direction of Bandol/Toulon from Aix-en-Provence. This beach is only reachable by bus during the summer season (LER 19 — months of July and August), so we were lucky that some wonderful French friends were willing to take us with on their trip to the beach!
The weather was perfect, with a slight breeze and not too hot. I tend to overheat in the provencal sun, and have a tendency to throw up due to the exhaustion I experience in heat (I know it’s weird!) Even when I drink a lot of water, I have a hard time staying well in heat. But this wasn’t too bad. Before we went to the beach, we stopped at a sporting goods store with our friends, who wanted to pick up some beach items, like a racquet game and a parasol. It was a great idea, because having a shaded area on the beach was perfect after swimming!
The beach wasn’t too crowded; it was very long, so there was a lot of room all along the way. There was tons of families with small children, couples who were picnicking, and topless women sunbathing. Though in the US this would be quite scandalous, it’s really very normal here in France. My Fodor’s Guide says that it used to be more fashionable to go topless at the beach but it isn’t anymore, so it’s mostly older women who do it. But I know we saw some women in their 30s who were topless as well.
To start out the day, Vincent and I dipped our feet in the water and walked along the beach. The water wasn’t too cold, so we had a nice time walking out a bit further. The beach starts out shallow, around the ankles, then quickly gets as deep as the waist (for me at least!), then interestingly gets very shallow again, back to the ankles. So there were people standing out very far in the water but who were only up to their ankles/calves in water. Vincent didn’t want to go out that far, but I did; I love swimming, and I love being in the water, so this was a good day for me.
After swimming around, I built a sandcastle with a huge moat, with the daughter of our French friends. We had a great time trying to beat the waves; every time we would build a tower, the water would come in and instantly wash it away! We were definitely building too close to the water, but it was fun trying to win against the sea. While we were doing this, Vincent and one of our friends were playing the racket ball game in the waves. It was just a pleasant afternoon in the sun.
After swimming, building sandcastles, playing sports, napping in the shade, and reading, we were ready to get something to drink at a seaside restaurant and go home (it was starting to look cloudy). We all quenched our thirst and then walked to the nearby port.
It was a great way to celebrate our trip soon coming to an end! As of today (5/31/2015), we have less than three weeks left in Europe! We’ll miss days like these, as well as the friends we’ve made and the provencal life. But we’re also excited to get back home, and back to real-life!
