At seven in the morning, the fishermen are still unloading their pointus along the quay. The smell of diesel and salt air drifts up before the cafés have even lifted their chairs off the tables. This is the Vieux Port before the season gets its hands on it.
The port traces its roots to the late 15th century, when Genoese sailors established a settlement here. It grew fast: fishing, coastal trade, long-distance navigation, shipbuilding. By the end of the 18th century, Saint-Tropez held the third-largest fleet on the French Mediterranean, behind only Marseille and La Ciotat. The main basin only became officially known as the Vieux Port in 1965, rebuilt stone by stone after wartime damage.
The port today spreads across two basins covering nine hectares, with close to 800 berths. In high season, the yachts are packed in so tightly they barely move. The narrow, tall maisons remparts lining the quays, never more than four storeys, painted in earth tones with olive-green shutters, give the whole place a density that no postcard quite captures. The old cellars are restaurants and boutiques now. But on the quayside, local painters still hang their canvases against the railings, as they have for generations.
The Vieux Port is also a departure point: regular ferry services run to Sainte-Maxime, Port Grimaud, Saint-Raphaël and Cannes. And the Môle Jean-Réveilla, a rocky jetty that pushes out into the bay, gives a sweeping view over the whole rade that most visitors walk straight past. Free. Open at any hour.
