Toulon, France: We spent the day tied up in port here in Toulon. It is probably the best natural harbor France has, nearly as impressive as San Diego or San Francisco Bay. It is not a frequent cruise port.
As you might guess, that makes it a home port of the French Navy, which was on display in some numbers. Most obvious was France's aircraft carrier, tied up at pier with no planes in evidence on deck.
I don't take the lack of planes to indicate an inactive ship, I believe it is common for everything flyable to be launched before coming into port. It's why navies have naval air stations, land bases at which to station their planes and crews when the carrier is in port between cruises, for rest and refit.
As I looked at the other ships of the French Navy, identifiable by their gray paint, I marveled at how little today's navy looks like the naval vessels of my youth and young adulthood. If there were any frigates or destroyers or cruisers in port I failed to see them. What I saw were ships of odd shape and dimension, looking more like ro-ro freighters or odd, lumpy auxiliaries of various arcane purpose.
It's no longer your father's navy. In the long-time absence of active naval warfare, navies have taken on other useful roles such as putting troops ashore to rescue expats from former colonial possessions which have become war zones.
The U.S. has a number of odd-looking ships wearing naval livery too. We've seen them in Alexandria, Egypt, for example, awkward combinations of troop carrier, helicopter launch platform, and mother ship to a bunch of small landing craft.
