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HYÈRES HOLIDAY GUIDE
Our
complete guide to booking a self-catering holiday in
Hyeres / Toulon
Our Hyeres /
Toulon holiday travel guide will give you all the
information and tips you need to get the very best
from your holiday in Hyeres / Toulon.
Palm
trees galore
The first
thing you’ll notice about Hyères is the
proliferation of palm trees. As well as lining the
streets, the trees are grown for exporting throughout
Europe and this is why the town is often called Hyères-les-Palmiers.
Royal
approval
Hyères
is the
oldest resort on the French Riviera. British
visitors have been coming here since the late
18th century when it became the favourite
winter destination of the then Prince of Wales. Queen
Victoria also gave it a Royal seal of approval when
she stayed in town for three weeks in 1892.
The
old town
Before
heading to one of the resort’s Blue Flag
beaches, spend some time wandering around the
charming streets of the medieval old town: shops
selling health foods and esoterica are popular. Place
Massillon, with its 12th-century Templar
tower, is lined with cafés and is a favourite
spot for lunch: try Le Bistro de Marius for top-notch
Provençal
cooking.
Award-winning
gardens
Amble up the
hill to Parc St Bernard
– one of four award-winning parks in town
– for fantastic views over Hyères and the
Giens
Peninsula. The gardens are at the foot of the
modernist Villa Noailles,
once frequented by Salvador Dali and other
surrealists. These days it hosts the town’s
most prestigious event – The International
Fashion and Photography Festival in May.
Activities
for all
The Giens
Peninsula,
France’s most southerly point, juts out of the
mainland for four miles and it is here you will find
Toulon airport as well as the amusement park,
Kiddy
Parc, which has rides, pools
and animals. Almanarre
beach, on the west side, is one of the world’s
best spots for windsurfing and kitesurfing.
The
Golden Islands
From the tip
of the peninsula you can take a ferry over to the three Iles
d’Or: Porquerolles, with its
vineyards and Caribbean-esque beaches; wild Port Cros, a National Park, with
much to offer walkers and divers and Ile du Levant,
which is mostly a military zone but has a village
devoted to naturism.
Toulon,
a naval city
Toulon, nine miles to
the east of Hyères, is
France’s main naval base and home port
of the country’s only nuclear-powered aircraft
carrier, Charles de Gaulle. It has a long and
turbulent history including occupations and blockades
by the Italians in the 15th century, the
Turks in the 16th century and the British
in the late 18th-early 19th
century. You can learn more about these events in the
Musée
de
la Marine and the Musée
du Vieux
Toulon. A boat trip around the harbour, one of
the largest in Europe, is a pleasant way to spend a
few hours.
Mont
Faron
Most
visitors to Toulon head up to 584m-high Mont Faron. The best way to reach
the top is by cable car and it is well worth the
effort for the views over the coast. Kids will love
the zoo, which specialises in the conservation of
wildcats, whereas older members of the family will be
interested in the Allied Landings Museum, which
recounts of the events in August 1944 when Provence
was liberated from the Germans.
Around
and about
To the west
of Toulon, the shingle beaches of
Six-Fours-les-Plages offer a welcome
respite from the variety of walks in the area:
whether you hike up to the former lighthouse of
Notre-Dame-de-Mai for the views over Cap Sicié or take the scenic
coastal path from Le Brusc.
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