A St Tropez jam

When you think “St Tropez,” you probably think of tans and holidays.

You probably don’t think of the town of Ste Maxime 10 miles away from St Tropez, which has been struggling with the effects of its neighbour’s popularity for about 30 years.

Now, you might think that the problem Ste Maxime has is jealousy, but in fact it’s the huge traffic jams caused by floods of people trying to get to St Tropez (which has no train station or motorway link to it).

Reportedly, for every 100 vehicles that enter the town, about 70 of them are only passing through to make their way to tan central.

Vincent Morisse, the mayor of the municipality, states, “It creates really monstrous jams.

“And it's not just tourists who are affected, but locals. Firms have difficulty making deliveries and it takes an hour and a quarter to get to the hospital; not to mention the pollution. It is catastrophic.

"For 30 years the road authorities haven't lifted a finger on this road. And in this period the traffic has increased tenfold, not to mention the fact that the population of Ste Maxime has gone from 7,000 to 12,000 inhabitants."

Now, and quite rightly so (we feel), the inhabitants have had enough. They are demanding that a bypass is built to take the traffic around them, so that their roads become less congested.

We wish them luck! And next time you get a St Tropez tan, or if you are lucky enough to go on holiday there, think of the town of Ste Maxime which gets all of the traffic and few of the tourists.

Labels: bypass, congested, holiday, motorway, pollution, road, St Tropez, Ste Maxime, tan, tourists, traffic jams, vehicles