SOF - Port Grimaud

[MRC]

I friend has come up with the idea of buying a place in Port Grimaud along with a mooring, after years of boating in Solent im tempted with the move. He buys the apt and I move my boat.

Whats it like there / any good?
any other suggestions
things to look out for?
we are planning a weekend there mid jan to take a look around.

any comments would be very welcome

thnaks

Mike

 

[mainshiptom]

Can he be my friend too?

Tom

 

[jfm]

It's nice but the BIG drawback is that it is so far from Nice airport. It would be something like 200euros by cab and 80mins. Many folk with houses there rent a car becuase cheaper than cab, but then you have to get a shuttle bus and queue up to get the car at Nice airport, or you can avoid that hassle by throwing €€€ at the problem: rent car at Nice from Hertz Gold, then the car is brought to arrivals by a valet and you dont waste time.

Alternative (better imho) would be to park the boat within 20mins of Nice Airport, ie Baie des Anges, Antibes, Golfe Juan, Cannes, La Napoule or the cap ferrat marinas. Then visit the lovely port Grimaud by boat

Some pics this summer of PG

 

[captainalex]

70-80mins from the airport, on the open french autoroutes. You'll only experience a problem in the peak season, July-September. From Ste Maxime to Port Grimaud alone, would be an hour!.If you get a parking spot in PG then you'll have the option to drive down in the summer, door to door, 10 hours in one day, no airport transfers to worry about.
Golfe Juan i think has gone downhill a bit.The main marina near the restaurants is too loud and busy, into the early hours. It depends what sort of boating you're going to do. If you're just going to be day tripping then PG is a great location, but if you're likely to be cruising the coast for extended periods, then you're probaly more suited to a marina closer to Nice, You're probaly more likely to cruise eastwards, as the weather(Wind) tends to be more favourable towards Nice.

 

[tcm]

It's fab, a waterborne village with plenty of protection and places to go east and west. But transport the prob and agree with others, 200euros cab to nice was 2 yrs ago. But twd be fine if you planned longterming for a few weeks at a time , not really on for weekend flits which is feasible within marinas say as far west as la napoule. There are backdoubles around frejus to ste maxime, so under an hour on a good day in own car late at nite in the summer wd be the time to do it. Good supermarket nearby, lots of brits too.

 

[EME]

Everything said about Grimaud is correct but the car journey is from hell (at all times of the year) 24/7/365 - there is a back way in but I can still never remember it properly and the locals do !

An alternative (less taxing mentally) way to get there from Nice airport is train or bus to Cannes and the 1 - hr ferry from Cannes to St Trop.

I like St Trop and that is the way I do it myself - and I don't live in Cannes ! I have sworn to never drive St Maxime to St Trop ever again ... life is just too short.

The same issue will exist for your boat-less mate and his house. If he expects to use Grimaud as a land-base for moving around SoF he will soon become disillusioned as he/they will soon feel isolated.


A far better bet would be to be Antibes , GJ , Theoule based to enjoy both sea and land ....

 

[wakeup]

Airport Options - Toulon ??

I have an acquitance that has a place in Lavendou which can't be far from PG and he uses Toulon airport to get into and out of that area as he agrees that the trek from Nice airpot is a drag?

 

[jfm]

Re: Airport Options - Toulon ??

Yeah but Toulon airport is no use for Brits unless you have your own plane. One UK flight per day, Stansted, Ryanair. Loads of Paris flights, but it's a PITA changing planes there if you are a Brit. And it's quite a drive East from Toulon to PG..... I have not checked map but same mileage as Cannes surely?

 

[EME]

Re: Airport Options - Toulon ??

Toulon maybe a couple of klicks closer - all immaterial as whichever airport you drive from you could be at the Spanish border in the time that it takes to drive from A8 to Grimaud or St Trop ... OK, small exaggeration.

ONLY ways to arrive in Grimaud or St Trop in good humour is by sea or whirly-bird.

 

[wakeup]

Re: Airport Options - Toulon ??

Toulon Airport is actually in Hyere so bit further east than Toulon City and easy to get on the n98 straight into PG, I reckon it's 45 minutes by car. It would take considerably longer from Nice no??? ALthough I confess I've never driven that route so could be talking through my bum. Note to self to wear thicker underpants to muffle the sound! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Learner put me straight?

 

[EME]

Re: Airport Options - Toulon ??

Yes you are right.

I've never driven that road from Hyeres ( actually airport twixt 2, only time I have ever passed it was in a taxi after having escaped in Lavandou having been kidnapped by TCM, but that as they say is another story) - I know where it comes out nr Cogolin and have done the route as an act of penance (several years ago) with Mrs Learner. Remembered as very narrow - but then I generalise. I would imagine that you are looking at well over an hour to Travel Hyeres - Cogolin on that road, but no recent experience.

I would have still got on A8 - but then again only time I go to Toulon is when kidnappped or to visit IKEA !

 

[wakeup]

Re: Airport Options - Toulon ??

Oh come on, I think you doth protest too much about being abducted. I guess the conversation went something like this, "Eh learner fancy a beer on my boat" and then you woke up the next day in Lavandou. No abduction whatosoever just a very bad attempt to justify your bad behaviour to Mrs Learner /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Soon you will be not be able to avoid Ikea as they are going to open one in Mouan Sartoux!

 

[tcm]

Re: Abduction truth

quite right. After a long evening the day before, the unlearned one partly woke up with us at dawn, but he stayed on the boat whilst the lines were being released. So i just assumed he wanted to come along. Ok, i also assumed he'd have his passport or praps not need the passport cos it's all Schengen or summink. Or maybe there'd been some talk about the trip the previous night. Perhaps I assumed that he's agreed to definitely come along. Whereas he's decided that it was all a bad dream, and relied on the fact that most boats in the south of france do an average of 0.01 nm the following day.

Anyway, we went straight past Cannes and ooer he started feeling a bit homesick. Or perhaps just sick. Either way, going past the gulf of st trop a very long way off had him calculating which bit of N africa we were aiming for and he hastily said he had no passport and woiuldn't be able to get home. So we stopped at le lavandou, which was probably a good thing cos the weather wasn't that good across to barcelona and we ourselves stopped at Toulon. I think L himself arrived in Toulon about two hours later and eventually got a train back to the safety of the Welsh speaking part of France nearer to Nice.

 

[wakeup]

Re: Abduction truth

I thought it was a figment of Learner's imagination. He'll be making up stories of drunken midnight illuminated petanque on a building site next! Ahem /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[tcm]

Re: Abduction truth

Hm. He told me he spent some considerable time working hard on final fitout. There was no mention of any petanque, and the clear implication was that it had been very VERY hard work in difficult conditions with no drinks of any description.

 

[EME]

Re: Abduction truth

I understand that 'Illuminated Petanque' is played in many places on balmy Summer evenings, however I swear this Summer someone had me playing Petanque at midnight on a building site with ... Illuminated Boules ... yes you read that right. The damn things were all fluorescent colours - lighting up the countryside, could have been mistaken as landing lights for Cannes Mandelieu airport ... thought I had been on The Rosay or something.

Wonder what the introduction of Swedish furniture shops will do to house prices in Lays Boire Mures Plastered?

Morale to the Kidnap Story ? - Never, Never, Never Drink a Yorkshireman's beer or he will attempt to sell you off to the slave trade... Mrs Learner STILL does not believe that that nice Mr TCM would set course for Barcelona with an unwilling passenger. Still thinks I was complicit/drunk/stupid /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[wakeup]

Re: Abduction truth

Tis true he worked very very hard, so hard he had to take his top off when he saw my French female neighbour..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif ....... but he was rewarded with a lot of Rosé as mentioned....althouh he and Mrs learner now retreat to a roof top in Switzerland every time we are planning to be in the area. Wimps!

 

[islandofsand]

We have an apartment in Port Grimaud for rent next to the small beach (45 seconds walk) sleeps 4 people with a south facing balcony and reasonable rates in the winter if you need to stay and look around with a view to buying. It never gets too busy in the summer. There is free summer mooring allocated to the apartments nearby and a little private place to beach dinghies when not in use. Parking is allocated behind a barrier. The beach is safe for children in season with a boom and there is a beach restaurant/buddah lounge/lougers for hire at the Port entrance side. The apartment is on www.islandofsand.com
or info@islandofsand.com if you'd like any info.

We looked into mooring and residents get preference unless you talk to someone privately. About 30ft costs roughly £2500 - £3000 per year. Garages are rentable or you can buy one but they aren't cheap. Moorings are few and far between but are upwards of £20,000

Yes the N98 is a nightmare from Ste Maxime Through Port Grimaud to St Tropez. Good idea to get the ferry from PG to St Tropez - its only €9 return and no traffic!

The back route we use is long and windy and quite out of the way but very Picturesque. Here is a very vague description. Come down from the autoroute at the Le Muy turnoff (38) and follow the road until you get close to Ste Maxime after about 15minutes. There is a sign saying something like "Itinerie Scenic" onto a small road on the left going to Plan de la Tour.
Take the road and follow it for about half an hour - following your nose straight up down and round many bends through a village and finally dropping down again to the N98 T junction just near the open air wicker shop turn right and join the last bit of traffice and port Grimaud is on left and the turn off is on the right.