15 October 2015 / leggypeggy

Saint Tropez shows us something of her maritime history

chapels, citadels, displays, English, films, harbours, language, maritime, museums, sailing, Saint Tropez, ships, St Tropez, views

The view from St Tropez’s citadel

Looking up at St Tropez’s citadel (and maritime museum)

Saint Tropez in the south of France may be the playground of the rich and famous, but it’s also home to a wonderful maritime museum.

Located in the dungeon of the town’s old citadel, the museum is only two years old, but it feels like it’s been there since ships first sailed into the town’s harbour. The views are great and the exhibits are beautifully done with explanations in both French and English.

As an aside, I’m always super impressed when museums in non-English-speaking countries go to the trouble of translating their display cards into English. You don’t see institutions in English-speaking countries translating their display cards into any other languages very often.

Three-masted ship

A model of how ships were loaded

Maritime memorabilia

Ancient guns

Nautical scene

Trinkets from sailing

But back to the museum—or shall I say into the museum? We crossed a drawbridge to go in, and got one of those rare benefits in France—a senior’s discount. Libby and Daniel had to pay full price, but then we paid for them, so our reduction didn’t matter much.

The museum is well laid out, with simple but effective displays that showcase the everyday lives of those who went to sea, and the men and women who lived and worked around the harbour.

Watching a film at the St Tropez maritime museum

Near the end of the tour, there’s a remarkable film showing a ship sailing through calm waters and then surging through a terrible and frightening storm. The display is especially clever. There’s a place for four to six people to lie back and watch the film being projected onto the ceiling. My photo is a bit out of focus, but I’m using it anyway because I really wanted to share the cleverness of the presentation. I think one of our party dozed off during the film, but i was spellbound.

Looking back over my photos, I’m surprised that I took so few in the museum—must have been mesmerized.

And if you’re new to the blog, you should check out the great meal we had in St Tropez or another great ‘seafood-y meal’ from my cooking blog.