Quiet neighbour speaks out against highway to hell, St-Tropez

Ste-Maxime represents the quieter side of life. Photo / Supplied

Just 16km of scenic route separates the medieval Cote d'Azur town of Ste-Maxime from its noisier, internationally celebrated neighbour, St-Tropez, Mediterranean playground of the rich and famous.

But for the Maximois, this short stretch along the French Riviera has become a highway to hell as up to 30,000 vehicles a day bisect the town at the height of summer, causing monstrous traffic jams.

Not only do the visiting hordes crawl through Ste-Maxime at a snail's pace, paralysing emergency services and public transport and polluting the atmosphere with noise and fumes, but they do so without so much as a backward glance, complain the locals.

As a result, Ste-Maxime suffers all the hassle and none of the benefits of St-Tropez's popularity, they say.

"We have had enough. For 30 years we have put up with this, but we can do so no longer," said Vincent Morisse, the Mayor of Ste-Maxime, who led a street demonstration of angry citizens demanding action.

"It creates really monstrous jams," Morisse said. "And it's not just tourists who are affected, but locals.

"It is catastrophic. Can you imagine the authorities letting this happen in Paris? I think not."

If you are going to get stuck in a traffic jam for up to three hours, the Cote d'Azur, where locals claim the sun shines for 300 days a year, and where the sparkling Mediterranean laps at pristine white-sand beaches, certainly beats many motorways.

Ste-Maxime sits at the north of the stunning Gulf of St-Tropez protected from the strong, cold and dry mistral wind by the Massif des Maures mountain range, and facing its neighbour - the preferred summer playground for the international celebrity set and an endless stream of artists, singers, Hollywood stars and Russian oligarchs - across the Gulf.

The town was founded 1000 years ago by monks from the Lerins islands off Cannes, just along the coast.

For centuries, fishing was the main industry, then olive oil, wine and cork.

In August 1944 its beach was at the centre of Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France.

Among Ste-Maxime's grandest visitors are members of the Swedish royal family, who own a villa in the centre.

The unassuming Ste-Maxime has never sought to compete with its more famous neighbour but has played a vital, if unrewarded, role in the success of St-Tropez, which has no train station or motorway link.

But now the residents of Ste-Maxime have had enough of being ignored and inconvenienced and are demanding that the regional authorities construct a bypass around them.

Jean-Pierre Duprilot, vice-president of the Ste-Maxime Sites Association, which organised a demonstration of 200 local residents last month, said the problem had been getting steadily worse for at least 20 years. He said that for every 100 vehicles that entered the town, 70 left for St-Tropez.

"The small traffic holdups used to be part of the charm of the St-Tropez gulf and used to be worse in the summer when there were a lot of holidaymakers. But today we live all year round with infernal traffic jams.

"For 30 years the road authorities haven't lifted a finger on this road," he said. "And in this period of time the traffic has increased tenfold.

"It is urgent and imperative we have a road to take this traffic away ... This cannot go on."

- Observer