La visita a Toulon puede ser resumida como nos bajamos del barco, dimos una vuelta, y nos volvimos a montar. Así de poco hay de ver! Después de pasar un día maravilloso en Mónaco, Toulon parase rustico y simple. Cada día nos convencemos más que esta ruta está diseñada para hacerse desde Barcelona a Venecia en vez de desde Venecia a Barcelona como la hicimos nosotros. Si se hiciese de Barcelona a Venecia, se visitaría Toulon antes de Mónaco al igual que se visitaría Kotor antes de Dubrovnik.
Toulon es una ciudad con una base naval francesa que domina la economía y las aguas de la bahía. La ciudad tiene un área vieja (no se puede llamar antigua) que es completamente peatonal. En la misma nos encontramos con un mercado de agricultores donde predominaba la venta de frutas y aceitunas. Una pena que ya al medio día estuviesen recogiendo para irse. Al igual que en Mónaco, aquí los dependientes de tiendas hablan varios idiomas sin reparos. Luego de caminar por una hora, decidimos que habíamos visto lo suficiente y regresamos al barco.
Si se preguntan por qué no hablo de la regata del Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series que se celebró en Toulon la el fin de semana pasado, es porque las facilidades las hicieron tan lejos del puerto que no valía la pena llegar hasta ellas!
Our visit to Toulon could described as left th ship, did a little walking, came back to the ship. Yes, there was very little to see and do! After having a wonderful day in Monaco, Toulon seems quaint and simple. We are now convinced that this route should sailed from Barcelona to Venice instead of the other way around as did it. If you start your trip in Bacerlona you would visit Toulon before you see Monaco, so it will not be a letdown. It will be the same with Kotor. You will visit it before you see Dubrovnik.
Anyway, Toulon is a city with a large naval base that dominates the town as well as the bay. The city has an older part (cannot be call medieval) and more recent area. The older part is pedestrians only and we got the surprise of having the farmers’ market in town. This market is dominated by fruit and olive farmers. We were sad that by noon the market was being shut down, so we could not completely enjoy it. As in Monaco, here the store keepers also spoke multiple languages without a problem. After walking around for an hour, we returned to the ship and gave ourselves to enjoy the sun on the pool deck!
You may wonder why I’m not writing about the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series that happened last weekend here. The LVACWS village was so far away from the port and the city, that it wasn’t worth the effort to get there!
