Today has been a great day. Awaking relaxed and refreshed I left the hotel with a spring in my step.
My destination lay uphill and boy was it a steep hill. The walk to the cable car that would transport me to the summit of Mont Faron, which sandwiches Toulon between it and the sea, left me feeling like an asthmatic in the middle of pollen season.
After taking a few minutes to catch my breath from the steep incline I made my way to the cable car.
It only takes 6 minutes for the journey to the top but it was a fun ride. The higher I went the more of Toulon and its surroundings I could see. The panoramic views of the city, the mountains and the sea wouldnt have looked out of place in the Caribbean.
At the top I strolled over to the first attraction. A military fort that since the 50s has been the memorial museum for Operation Dragoon.
We’ve all heard of Operation Overlord, the codename for the D-Day landings in Normandy. There was however a second “D-Day” on August 15th 1944. Almost a quarter of a million Allied and French troops invaded a 70km stretch of coast between Toulon and Nice from North Africa and Italy.
This operation hastened the collapse of the Nazi’s in France and is perhaps one of the unsung major victories of the war. I myself was unaware until today of this invasion of Southern France.
The memorial museum itself has been recently rennovated and the story of the operation and of life under the Vichy regime was told in an emotional and expertly curated exhibition.
After a good couple of hours soaking up the information in the memorial museum I made my way across ghe mountain top, stopping breifly at some remains of other military fortifications and a simple church dug into the rock of the mountain.
At the end of the path lay a zoo dedicated mostly to big cats. A small zoo, which to my mind was in desperate need of a renovation, it was nonetheless an insteresting attraction.
Lions, tigers, lynx of several species, panthers, jaguars and others all lounged lazily in the afternoon sun whilst the racoons, ringtailed lemurs and even the donkey moped about in the search for remnants of their lunches.
Most interesting to me was the troop of Hamadryas Baboons. I spent quite a long time watching as they groomed each other’s fur, rumaged through the hay on the floor, and otherwise interacted with each other.
Close to feeding time they all started doing rings around the enclosure. Then when food did arrive everything turned to chaos. They were running everywhere trying to feel as much food as possible. Fights broke out whilst others chucked the food they didnt like aside in exchange for better pickings.
It was utterly fascinating and weird watching them. Before I knew it id spent half an hour or more observing their behaviours. By the end I felt like David Attenborough.
I took my time returning to the cable car. The forested summit ofnthe mountain provided the perfect envrionment for a stroll and the occasional glimpses of Toulon and the sea through the trees were stunning.
The wait for the cable car back down the slope was a long one. Usually each trio can hold 18 people but due to coronavirus, the staff had implemented a limit of 5 per trip. However, given that you could not stand a metre away from the other passengers I thought that this measure was a bit of a waste of time.
Band on stable ground I returned to the town centre to eat. My brief time in Toulon is coming to an end. Tomorrow I move on to my final destination, Nice.
All Aboard The Backpacker's Express 