Saint Tropez

We were there once before maybe thirty years back with our friend Heinz.
Nothing has changed over the years.
Driving into this small beach town is a nightmare dodging, weaving and braking to avoid missiles coming at you. The hairy-chested middle aged Latharios with their parchment-skinned trophy-wives completely own these winding hillside roads. There are also ribbons of Kamikaze motor cyclists screaming past you taking risks on each turn then disappearing off into oblivion leaving just a whiff of fuel fume for us to suck on.
The town is full to overflowing with locals, tourists, the wealthy, those that aspire to a wealthy lifestyle, and yes ,a few down and outs (but not too many).
The sun beats down as two opposing factions strut their stuff.
Wandering along the quay side is a seemingly endless stream of gawking tourists (us included) who are just amazed by the sheer opulence of the floating gin palaces that are moored to the quay.
We are not talking a dozen or so super yachts here.There is floating wealth on show as far as the eye can see.
On the boats the various crews get on with their daily chores, completely oblivious to the hordes staring at them from a couple of metres away.
However, it's the body language of the yacht owners (and their cling on friends) that is of real interest.
The scenario is basically what you see when you call into a zoo and check out the monkey enclosure.
On one side are the tourists staring at the ship board monkeys all with the collective thought running through their brains along the lines of, 'why in hell has life dealt me such average cards on the money front? I would give my right arm to be reclining on one of those aft deck chairs right now, sucking down a pre lunch Bollie'. Oh well, I might as well walk over to the bar across the road and order a double expresso.
Meanwhile the rich and famous onboard (and their less affluent friends) are staring back at the tourists with a look of complete indifference on their faces.
We're not fooled for one minute.
We know damn well that these guys feel they have earned the right to look down at we plebs wandering around the quay in an aimless fashion.
I must say we enjoyed the whole spectacle and did our bit watching the watchers from the safety of a very nice brasserie.
And as for the yacht owners and those living in St Tropez, all I can say is that word of the world's economic problems haven't reached the ears of these privileged few.
These guys live in their own rarified time zone.
Do we want to go back to St Trpoez on any future sojourn to France?
Not in this lifetime.
It's all just a little too 'bling'to take seriously.