Taking the cable car to the top of Mont-Faron Hill was so worth it! A little back story and you…read morewill understand.
I was on a Mediterranean cruise by myself, and befriended a girl named Ida, from Norway. We decided to do all of our excursions together, since we were both traveling alone (she had a friend with her, but he was ill and stayed in the room the entire time).
On our day in Toulon, we walked around the city looking for something to do, and decided to find the cable car and ride it to the very top of the hill. Slight problem though, neither one of us spoke fluent French. We tried to communicate with several people, but we ended up pointing and gesturing.
Finally we came across a Frenchman who was wearing spandex and stretching (he looked to be a runner) in a park. Ida spoke broken French, and we pointed to the top of the hill, gesturing we wanted to take the cable car to the top. The Frenchman (whom we nicknamed "Jacques", said something to Ida, and she looked at me and said, "I think he just asked if we wanted a ride".
He pointed us towards the road we needed to climb, and we smiled, waved, and bid Jacques adieu. We started walking up the hill when we heard a car honking at us. We look over, and a car pulls up next to us and rolls down the window - what do you know, it's Jacques and he is motioning for us to get into the car. We looked in the car, and saw a child seat, so I figured, why not, can't be that bad.
After Ida and I got into the car (her in the front, myself in the back), we both realized, "Neither of us speak fluent French, we don't know Jacques, heck we don't even know his real name, and we just got into his car." He took us up the mountain to the base of the cable car, and then pulled out for us to get out. We made it - alive!
Ida and I joked apparently our parents never taught us not to get into strangers' cars, especially in foreign lands.
Regardless, the cable car ride was incredible - we could see all the way out to the Ocean, and could see our cruise ship (and several others) in the distance. The ride was smooth, and allowed for some wonderful pictures to be taken, as well as video.
At the top of the hill there is a wonderful restaurant which sells crepes - I had never had nutella, so Ida insisted we get a Nutella crepe, which we split over some beverages. The views from the restaurant were great as well.
If I am ever back in Toulon, I think I would take the cable car again - it was definitely worth it.
