Côte d’Azur: French Riviera

I recently spent a couple of days at a peninsula in the French Riviera.

The French Riviera (French: Côte d’Azur) is one of the most famous resort areas in the world, extending along the Mediterranean Sea west from Menton near the Italian border, including the cities and towns of Monaco, Nice, Antibes, and Cannes.

The place I went to, the Giens peninsula, is a peninsula located near the town of Hyeres, and is a lesser known spot in the French Riviera.  The peninsula is linked to the mainland by a strip of land.  The entire site of the peninsula is covered with forests of high coastal cliffs overlooking the sea.  There are pines trees everywhere, in addition to many other types of distinct flora. The entire southern part of the island consists of cliffs and forests. The south west is a military zone where access is restricted. There is a small port to reach the island of Porquerolles by a ferry, where there are diving clubs. The wind is not strong here, so this particular peninsula is not popular for wind related sports.

The shore is pebbly and sandy and the water clear and blue and good for swimming. Mistral may blow in some parts of the peninsula. There are some small, intimate coves in craggy hollows, and some isolated portions of shore where you almost feel you own a private island. The peninsula is quite untouched, and the terrain is rocky (sedimentary rocks).

You can sit on a rock on the shore at night, the water lapping on the shore, complete darkness except for the moon, the stars and a distant lighthouse flashing on the horizon regularly.

It is different from Nice- there are no posh beaches, and in fact no shopping places, or any beach activities except boating, rowing a canoe etc. So many people would find it boring. But I loved it, because it was my definition of a holiday. You can walk from coast to coast, and not meet another soul- there is so much solitude and quiet.

The place we stayed at is a holiday resort (website here). It is a reasonably priced resort with different buildings with rooms (great rooms- double rooms, with fully furnished kitchen and 2 balconies).

Those who are interested, these are a few pictures of the resort:

The main reception and lobby of the resort had wonderful dining places (indoor and outdoor) and breakfast included some 10-12 items, and lunch and dinner consisted of 25 items each. You can eat as much as you want, it is buffet. The cuisine of Provence region has some distinct specialties, and I loved the food.

There was a billiards table, and my friend taught me to play billiards, and I won the first game itself, and people watching me applauded, were surprised, “premier fois??!!” (first time?)

Our group consisted of some 100+ people from the labs, and the other tourists consisted of families and couples, and two large groups: one of senior citizens and the other of mentally handicapped people (all ages) with their institute volunteers or caretakers.

The old people walked slowly with canes, played cards, ate, drank and enjoyed, sang songs, and swam in the sea.

Second group- consisted of people with mental and some with mental as well as physical disabilities, and the caretakers were so extremely patient with them, taking them for walks, taking them to the beach, making them wear beach clothes, and taking them for boat rides (that took some convincing for many of the people- they were nervous to see the boat rock when they tried to climb it!). It filled my heart with happiness, to see them respected as human beings, being treated so sweetly, it filled me with peace and content.