La Seyne sur Mer

We docked for Toulon. Instead of being at the city dock, it was across the bay in Seyne sur Mer (note, Wiki has little to no history or current information on the town. Especially lacking is what happened to the town during WWII) where there is a commercial port not far from Fort Balaguier. There is extensive anchorage as well as pier in Toulon. At the Naval Base which is the largest in France. One might surmise that interests, weather, and lack of Brits as well as economics might have something to do with the placement of this important Naval Station. The Naval school is located here as well. The last time I was here we docked in Toulon and I spent extensive time in the Maritime Museum. If I had wanted to go across the bay it would have been a local water transfer. It seems that a French Ferry and another cruise ship (HAL?) had the only docking berths for the day.

docked in Toulon

docked in Toulon

Not being one to spend 18€ when I can walk for free, I first headed to Fort Balaguier only to find that, this not being Wed or Thurs afternoon, it was not open for visitors. There were workers inside, but my French is atrocious at best so I didn’t bother to call out.

Front there I wandered through an building that had obviously seen better days.

Back past

an old house

an old house

the more modern military fort

the more modern military fort

 the port to the town itself where I had just missed both the flea market and the produce market.

So I wandered around enjoying myself taking pictures of buildings, streets and alleys.

a couple of pictures for Cheré

and one for Pat, Linda and any other librarian reading this

019a2869

the ships in the harbors (Naval Yards, Toulon, local) of all manner

and the monument to the French Resistance including those lost in the Shoah

019a2877

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
This entry was posted in Cruising. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.