Les Voiles de Saint Tropez

Dear Family and Friends,

With the end of Julie's intensive French course in Aix en Provence, we have all gotten back into a routine. The kids are busy with school, music, and sports. All in all, they've done a good job of keeping up with their studies and other activities. Julie really enjoyed her class and the opportunity to get an academic footing for her French skills that she wouldn't otherwise get through conversation alone.

Joe has been busy preparing for the fall meetigs of the ITER Council, which has meant a lot of work doing cost studies and writing papers. This has occupied a lot of his time in the evenings and on Saturdays. Finally, to keep from going nutty, he took a break last Saturday to go to "Les Voiles de Saint Tropez", or the "Sails of Saint Tropez." This competition is the boating equivalent of the Monaco Historic Grand Prix during which time historic racing yachts from all over the world come to the chic village of Saint Tropez to compete in Regattas.



The bay of Saint Tropez

Saturday was the last day of competition. We arrived early in the morning in order to see the preparations for the race and watch the boats leave the docks.

 

Cars of Saint Tropez

After we parked the car, we quickly realized that we were out of our element. Our first clue was the Lamborginis, Rolls Royce, Austin Martins, and Ferraris. Even Julie was starting to recognize the different makes of supercars! 

Playing in the bay

Our next clue was the crowd, which consisted of the very rich and the yacht crews who worked for them. I guess this is what one would expect from an event sponored by Rolex where souvenir shirts cost 89 euro (125 dollars). 

Vintage Yachts

Since all of the boats that took people out to watch the race were booked, we decided to walk up and down the docks and around the village. Many of the boats had dates under their names ranging from 1903 to 1930. It was amazing to see the care that went into keeping the wooden boats in perfect condition.


Modern Yachts

In addition to the older boats, there were modern racers that also competed. The crews spent the morning washing down the decks and cleaning the ropes and other equipment. Keeping the boats free of salt and corrosion is evidently hard work.

Getting Underway

At around noon, the boats that had left the harbor started to raise their sails. For Joe who loves boats, this was the most exciting part of the afternoon. Unlike the modern sailboats that have one main sail, the older boats had two masts with two to three sails each. Julie also noticed that their sails were all white which made them easy to distinguish from their newer competitors.

Mega Yachts in Saint Tropez Bay

In addition to the sailing yachts, there were also a number of mega yachts anchored in the bay. Several of these looked like small cruise ships. Together with all of the speed boats, this made for a picture in chaos. It was amazing that there weren't any collisions (at least that we saw).

The Regatta

By mid afternoon, the sailboats were racing around the bay. We found a nice place on the shore and watched for a while before it was time to leave so that Joe could get back to work. Joe snapped pictures while the kids played near the water.

Tacking

As a payoff for letting him come watch the sailboats, Joe treated everyone to some glace (ice cream) on the way out.

Joe, Julie, Nicolas, Elyse, and Nathaniel