Winters in St Maxime Area

Mild winters in the Gulf of St Tropez were one of the reasons I initially came to live in the area. Year after year we were able to enjoy a mild winter and tell our friends and family in the UK about lunching on the beach in January. How things have changed over the last two winters!!
For two years now we have experienced very cold and wet winters with gales. This is not to say that it has been like that all the time but we have seen cars and caravans floating away as the area around rivers have been deluged and sites near the coast damaged by very high winds and waves.
Even now, at the beginning of March, the regions around us have snow and last week I even noticed a thin layer of ice on my pool, something I have not seen during my 6 years here. Is this Global Warming ( or freezing??). Let’s hope that the weather now improves and we can get back to business as usual!

Mr. L. 11/03/10

St Maxime Golf Course 2009

December has been a strange time at St Maxime golf club. The beginning was SO cold that we could only play after about 11am when it got to around 7c brrr! The middle of the month brought rain with the odd days of sunshine and the end of the month has been relatively mild but damp.
This year has brought many changes, both good and bad, depending on one’s point of view. We lost quite a few staff including Jerome the manager and Tony the Caddy Master but gained new and friendly staff.
The club house was completely redesigned and we now have a great shop and restaurant and the new electric golf carts arrived which are a great improvement on the old petrol ones. Pity the GPS is flakey!!!
The quality of the course has been drastically improved, though the bunkers still tend to be more like cement than sand after a rain storm.
All in all the quality of the golf experience has vastly improved this year and I really love it.
This week I played with Mark, who took the opportunity to develop his present swing, before going back to the UK next week and was amazed to think I had really improved. This is called Golfers Delusion!!!! We all know that golf is about false dawns. One day great the next disastrous!!

Mr. L. 31/12/09

The cinema in Sainte Maxime by Mr L

It is refreshing in an area like St Maxime to find such a modern facility as the Gaumont cinema. It is built in a new complex on the road in from Le Muy to St Maxime and comprises 3 cinemas a theatre, a shop and a bar serving drinks both soft and alcoholic. The building is very impressive and the free car park is gigantic.
Gaynor and I met Henri and Nadine, a golfing friend and his wife there to see an English film called Rosemary Gets Married. It was one of the many English language films (V.O) that are regularly shown here.
It was pleasant to take a small drink in the bar which is situated in the mammoth entrance hall that looks more like an art gallery than a cinema.




Open year round. National release, 3 air-conditioned rooms. Some showings in original version. New programme available on wednesday afternoon at the tourist office.
3 brand new rooms will satisfy you : numerical sound comfortable seats sweet shop and fast food free car park
Rate : 7.50€Reduced rate (students, large families, unemployed people) : 6€ and on Monday and Wednesday all day longBook of 10 tickets : 55€
Cinémas "Le Pagnol"Carré Léon Gaumont Route du Plan de la Tour 83120 Sainte-Maxime
Information and reservations: + 33 (0)4 94 43 26 10
Voice-responding server: + 33 (0)8 92 68 72 12


Mr L

Hot days and barmy evenings in Sainte Maxime by Mark

Last night we went out to Sainte Maxime with my old mate Roby from Milan. He had just popped over with his wife Marika and their daughter Ava for a few days R and R, I think it was just an excuse for a couple of playing lessons with me up at the Sainte Maxime golf club.

Andrew, Michele, Marika, Ava, Roby and Lady

After a few drinks and a meal at La Derive (during the meal Lady was schooled by Ava or was it the other way round) we strolled up the walking street to our favourite ice cream seller ‘Coco glaces’ At that point all thoughts of sticking to my diet had completely gone out of my head, so as they say ‘ in for a penny in for a pound’

For me!!!!