Hola todos,
After sorrowfully saying goodbye (or, rather, au revoir) to Nice, we got on our train to Hyères (pronounced, as best as we can tell, "yair" but you swallow the "r"). Hyères is a small little coastal town (one of many in the region!) that basically starts the French Riviera from the west. When we were planning out our trip, we thought it would be nice to get a small town pause in the exploring hustle and bustle (read: forced rest for Tina).
But we actually spent our time in Nice at a decent pace, including lots of time at the beach, and we loved Nice so much that I was worried we had set ourselves up for disappointment in Hyères.
As it turns out, I needn't have worried at all.
* * *
From Nice, we had a train and a transfer, and then a short city bus ride to where our Airbnb was. Since we were staying on the far east side of Hyères, near the marina and the water, we didn't get to see any of the downtown area of Hyères on our way in from the train station.
It took us a couple of hours to get to Hyères, so by the time we were situated and ready to hit the beach, it was the late afternoon. We were in beach withdrawal, so we stopped by a grocery store for an easy dinner and made our way to the beach for as long as we could hold out that evening.
The beaches were sand, which provided a new hurdle we hadn't had to face yet on this trip. (Windy beach + sand + food (or really anything else) = lots of strategic towel anchors and tucking deep into bags!) Our little area of beach was in a protected cove, so there weren't waves, misting, or spraying to deal with. The weather was a little cooler and the water was much colder than Nice, but we tucked into our books and listened to the water and generally just had a relaxing evening.
As Hyères is a small town and we were there at the end of the summer season, there were very few people around the beach. The marina was a bit more lively at night after folks came in and docked their boats. On our walk back from the beach to our Airbnb, we passed a few restaurants on the marina, including one that advertised a local band performance the next evening. We didn't want to overcommit our schedules, but we added that to the list of things we could do the next day.
Our second (and only entire) day in Hyères, we took it easy--we spent the entire day on the beach (or, really, the small patch of sand next to the other small patch of sand we had been at the day before) and only interrupted the beach time to walk to the local grocery store for lunch and hydration. We slept, read and chatted; the weather wasn't too hot, but when we wanted to cool down the (very cold) water was right there. There were a few fish swimming around (and nibbling ankles if you entered the water). In a word: perfect.
After a full beach day, we felt refreshed and interested in a little night out in Hyères--some local wine and food, some music, and views of the marina sounded like a good way to spend our final night there. So we got cleaned up, put on cute outfits, and went to that restaurant we had passed the night before.
When we got there, it was pretty dead (which didn't surprise us: it was a weekday evening and almost the off-season) so we managed to get a table with a nice view.
But, as it turned out, we were just there too early for the French--lots of the tables had reservations and filled up within the hour!
We ordered some regional wine (the restaurant was affiliated with a winery) and some pâté (definitely not my thing but definitely my mom's!) and just enjoyed the people-watching and the views and, when the show started, the music.
The band was great and played mostly American rock hits--so we could sing along! We stayed out later than we thought we would because we were having such a good time. Comparing notes later, we agree that this was one of our favorite memories of the trip.
The next morning, it was sprinkling as we left Hyères. We grabbed our coffees and croissants and caught the next train out to Marseilles, our next and last stop. The stopover in Hyères was short (fewer than 48 hours) but provided us the rest and calm and scaled-back tourism that we hoped it would. We were ready to tackle another city and get our step counts back up!
Besos,
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