The big question: what to wear? and other Saint-Tropez, France Things to Do Tips

You come here to see and be seen. Your biggest decision is not whether to take a packed lunch, its what you propose to wear.

Beginners need some style advice.

Real Tropezienes set an example

The girls' clothing style is white, and more white. Temperature is hot and white is cool. A hat is sensible but no flower-pots - wide brimmed straw works well. And roomy shoulderbags, not euro-trek rucksacks.

For men, a dog makes a suitable statement - "I live here".

Style notes for visitors
(Apologies to Heat and Hello readers who know all this stuff inside out!)

Youve come here to enjoy the scene, and people watch. Only the day-trippers wander around dressed for the beach. Wear clothes, not "sportswear". No-one is wearing branded sportswear - which some people mistakenly think looks cool. No US baseball vests with the number 18 in huge letters on the front (as in an estimate of the wearer's IQ). That only works if you are P Diddy.

Geltlemen: daywear, if you must wear a baseball cap, it's ok here, but its worn forwards not backwards (dude!). And the shorts - not short shorts - cut half or three-quarter length and flipflops or Birkenstocks, not trainers. Evening: low-cut denin jeans of designer look finished with a big metal belt, mixed with an expensive designer shirt - perhaps white embelished with embroidery and silver, rounded off with a soft-tailored dark jacket.

Ladies: as extrovert as you dare, if you've got it this is the place to flaunt it. If you used to have it but its getting on a bit, age doesn't matter - you need to be more outrageous as you get older - in France you get points for not giving up. A straw stetson hat and cowboy boots teamed up with skinny jeans may be passe (Posh still wears them) but theres some life still in variations. Last of all - those dark glasses - the bigger the better. Its the defininition of cool.

Think: "No Photos No Photos - see my agent!" Now you're beginning to get into the spirit of St Tropez.

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The legendary Hotel Byblos on Av Paul Signac is the quintescence of luxury. What does such "luxury " cost? 550 euros a night, if you want to know. The carpark bristles with Ferraris and Rolls Royces. The Hotel boasts its own chillout record series on par with the Buddah Bar.

In the basement is the kitsch number one celebrity nighspot disco Les Caves du Roy , where you will see P Diddy or Bruce Willis holding court. Expect to spend or bribe in thousands to even get in. Rumoured one party set back P Diddy a half million dollars on champagne - Dom Perignon or Cristal, of course. but spraying as well as drinking.

Daytime, a discrete hotel-chauffered people-mover ferries a half dozen American trophy wives down to the beach. They are spending the summer season in St Trop', while their Ivy League husbands sweat 18 hours a day over corporate multimillion dollar mergers and aquisitions.

Everybody who is anybody stays at Byblos.This is personal service to the extreme. This is not necessarilly somewhere anyone might stay, but it is somewhere to see.

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Address: Avenue Paul Signac
Website: http://www.byblos.com/

If you have Porche or Ferrari, then wheelspins around narrow streets can almost be forgiven, but to get around Saint Tropez with style calls for a "fun vehicle" or a scooter.

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She gets about St Tropez by scooter, naturally. Big hair and a size six, all she needs is a pack of cigarettes and a mobile phone: everything else is superflous in the St Tropez lifestyle.

A word about size

You will not see many fat people in St Tropez. The one thing that shouts out loud here is that "thin is good". Its cruel but such is life. If you have acheived thin by the usual means - extreme calorie restriction - all you now need to do is practice lines like "Darling its not my fault I am naturally thin!". Particularly within earshot of other women.

Fellas: only one "size" matters here, the size of your bank balance.

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No question Saint Tropez is a magnet for young and not so young women with a taste for style. I think it follows from the fact women tend to read celebrity magazines and St Tropez is a backcloth to a certain A-list and B-list celebrity scene, making it one of the must go destinations. Its expensive and hard to get to, providing the necessary exlusivity.

Strangely, not many young men with shaved heads and earings, wanting to watch football on bar big screens, pint in hand, surrounded by like.

Perhaps these two things are related.

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Cenral to Saint Tropez is the dusty square populated with plane trees on their last legs, the place de Lices. Around it , cafes ideal to sit out in and enjoy watching your holiday spending money evaporate.

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Ther is no shortages of eating places in Saint Tropez. Ranging from the merely expensive to the even more vastly expensive, eating out requires a cool head and a wary eye on hidden costs. Even a reasonably priced pizza ceases to become so when the cheapest bottle of wine is three times the price. check for a sensible option.

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Boutiques galore give you the opportunity to burn through your budget on trivial but vital accessories

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Simple fishing boats point to the history of Saint Tropez, overtaken by the explosion that followed Vadim and Bardot in the late fifties where they filmed "And God Created Woman"

The folklore origin of Saint Tropez is the landing here two thousand years ago of a Roman christian convert centurion, bound to the mast of his cast away ship with a cockerel companion that pecked out his eyes.

Today the boats landing at the harbour are more likely just simple fishing boats which unload extraordinary expensive sea food, to be eaten in even more extrordinarily expensive restaurants, by grossly overpaid western media moguls.

Pleasure boats and yatches offer a vantage point from which to watch the pleasure-seekers below.

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Sight seeing in St Tropez is not a big deal - around an hour brisk walk should about do it.

Pretty in every aspect, the view over the town from the citadelle provides fine views. In the distance 5 km north is the venice of the Cote D'Azur - Port Grimaud - and 11 km the modern resort of Saint Maxime.

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