It certainly made me realise just how big cruise ships are - our ship is nowhere near the biggest in the world but it's bigger than any navy ship we saw today. Toulon is also the home port for the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle which wasn't in port, but our ship is almost 30 metres longer.
Our first stop was at the Maritime Museum. Although the displays are mostly labelled in French, some have English translations. And, surprisingly, they have an audio guide which is available in English. We spent a fair bit of time here because there was a lot of interesting stuff.
We had a bit more of a look around then decided it was time for lunch. We opted for a French take on an American burger restaurant - Baroque Burger - and it was just excellent.
Then we did a choo-choo train type tour around the town; not really worth the money but we did see a few points of interest. The bombardment of the city by the allies during WW2 was mentioned enough times to make it clear that there are still bitter memories though.
Finally, we went back to the ship and walked to one of the two forts on the La Seyne Sur Mer side. With a bit more time and energy we'd have walked to the second one - which is a museum and garden, unlike the first which is a locked up military site. However, it was all just a bit too far.
So, back to the ship to rest up for tomorrow's *really* big day in Florence.
Oh, and the Charles de Gaulle arrived while we were having our afternoon nap:
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