La Plage de Cabasson, Bormes-les-Mimosas

Plage de Cabasson with a view of the Fort de Brégançon

I have been twice to the Plage de Cabasson which is part of Bormes-les-Mimosas and which faces the French President's Summer residence the Fort de Brégançon. However, the 2 visits were like night and day : the first on Sunday afternoon when the whole world was there, and the second at 9 on a Tuesday morning when there wasn't a soul on the same beach.

On our second visit, we walked through an upper part of the main beach, over rocks and through vegetation and discovered a few beautiful beaches only accessible on foot or by boat. There were a few private boats on a few of those beaches that morning and some of the men and women were skinny dipping...Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the second visit, having forgotten to bring along my camera. You will have to take my word that the view was breathtaking out there.

We were quite surprised to discover that the beaches and waters along the French Riviera were quite clean, clear and beautiful. For some reason we've always imagined that you need to go somewhere more exotic like Sicily or Sardegna to find beaches like that.

Cabasson on a Sunday in August

Anyway, the main beach at Cabasson was horrible when it was crowded. Not an inch of space between you and your neighbour once you've placed your towel on the sand. But hey, most of it is free! Only a small portion had deck chairs for rent. Vive La France and the right to a free beach. You don't get much of this on mainland Italy.

We were next to 2 olive-skinned oily-haired chain-smoking men wearing a huge cross on their necks. Of course they were Italian. I think I still prefer Hub's scrubbed freckled look.

On the beach you have a few people pushing carts and selling drinks, ice cream and...filled doughnuts. I've read in the local papers that these doughnuts sell really well on the beaches in the region and that there is currently a doughnut war going on between an established vendor and a few newcomers (the latter tending to employ cheap Chinese students to do the selling). I personally couldn't stomach the thought of eating a doughnut in the heat, though I probably wouldn't say no to one of those delicious honey-dipped fried doughnuts that I used to buy from a Jewish pastry shop near Belleville in Paris. That was a totally different piece of doughnut, man.

Anyway there is only so much of a beach that I can stomach, never could understand how some people could spend a month there during Summer, I would have gone crazy besides being carbonised. I tan beautifully in just 3 days which is about the maximum amount of time that I can bear to spend on the sand. Hate getting sand everywhere on my person. As the Teenager would say, "Ma, I hate having sand in my butt crack!"