Porquerolles
The 31st August is the last night market in Hyeres Plage. We thought it might be worth exploring so we moved the boat. It was an easy sail under jib alone to just outside the port. We dropped anchor, grabbed some food and hit the town. Actually, the night market was a little disappointing. It seemed as though only half of the usual number of stalls had decided to show. We had a quick look, a small walk around the port and headed back to the boat.
There are a number of salt lakes in the area that appear to help mosquitos to dramatically increase their numbers. We discovered more than our fair share during the night as they bit any piece of skin not covered up!
We have one more night before heading past Toulon. The wind is due to shift to the east making the 20 mile gap past Toulon a little easier. We are anchored in Porquerolles in a quaint little bay. Beautiful scenery and plenty of boats.
A lazy day enjoying the warm shallow water before a short trip to civilisation. There is a small town and big marina on Porquerolles. Mostly restaurants fill the streets, oh and bikes! Everyone who visits the island appears to hire a bike.
We spotted a poster in the unmanned tourist office. There is an open air cinema showing 2 movies tonight. We thought we'd give it a go. We looked on the map to see where we needed to be and plotted the position on our phone.
We didn't have long to get back to the boat, eat and head out to the cinema to make it for 21.30! Back on the island we followed our map in total darkness, only the light of our head torch to light our way. We checked every sign that we passed for the name of the building from the poster but couldn't see it. We continued to our marked point along a small track for about half an hour but no sign of any buildings, any light or sound!
We stood for a while - puzzled. Did we mark it in the wrong place? Had it moved? We decided to head back. We had spotted some lights way back but couldn't figure out how to get to them. Surely an open air cinema would be bright, loud and easy to find.
"Snake" - in the beam or our torch a little critter was crossing the road. We have no idea if it was venomous so gave it a wide birth.
Eventually after checking every sign again we spotted what we were looking for. It wasn't the same name exactly but it related to art and we knew that we needed the arts centre. It all looked very fancy. A well lit driveway and security guards. We had to show our ticket that we'd booked earlier and the guard checked his list for our names. When we booked we weren't asked to give names - the website just confirmed 2 reserved seats. The security guard radioed someone who agreed we could come in. We were then met by a young man who explained that the film was Italian with French subtitles plus we were now an hour late. Did we still wish to see it? Yes of course.
We found our way in and sat on old fashioned deck chairs that were perfectly aligned in neat rows. Others seemed to have bean bags or even what seemed like beds to lie on.
We enjoyed our time at the movies even though we didn't understand most of the film. We will try and find a version in English one day!
We got back to the boat pretty late after walking and rowing in the dark. The stars were all out tonight. It was fantastic.
