If you are in Provence and Cote d’Azur and you want a quiet place with stunning nature and wonderful sea, this is for sure Porquerolles island, not far from Toulon.
From Cannes it takes approximately 1h 15 minutes by car to get there. You cross places mentioned in the 10 wonders of Provece and Cote d’Azur like the Colorado of Provence and finally you get to Hyeres, city where to take the boat to reach the Porquerolles island.
The price is not that cheap: 18 Euros per person for less than 30 minutes of travel. You can take it close to the Tour Fondue, old fortress, built to fight the pirates in the past.
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Even if the boat trip is short you can have fantastic sightseeing like this:
Once approached there, there’s a similar fortress, similar to the Tour Fondue, called Fort Sainte Agate.
Because of a lack of time we did not visit the fortress, but we preferred have a trip of the island: a good advice is to rent a bike for 8-10 euros per person and bike around the island to find hidden places. Well if you are not trained, be prepared as there are some hills and maybe it can be quite hard. Anyway there are 4 itineraries available to be done.
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At the tourism office, located at the port, we were recommended the south-eastern beaches (Plage de Notre Dame or de la Courtade) so we decided to walk in order to reach them. During the path you can find some interesting sightseeing points that revealed breathtaking landscapes:
We reached the beach called Plage de la Courtade: here the beaches are mostly white sandy, but they look like a stripe (just 5-6 meters at most from the sea to the wood). They are not that crowded so if you want to relax and be quiet this is the ideal place for you.
The last trip to come back to Hyeres was at 7.30 pm and we could enjoy the Tour Fondue and surrounding at the sunset.
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Unfortunately the fortress is not accessible : you can just walk along the trail around it.
The landscape was stunning too:
Here it is the Porquerolles port (thanks to Nikkor x14 Zoom) and its lighthouse
Then we took the car and as Saint Tropez was on the way to Cannes we decided to stop there for a dinner. Unfortunately it took at least 30 minutes to find a good parking place and then we had a dinner there in Place Marché and we had no time to walk around this city.
Anyway I can recommend the \”gallettes au jambon et fromage\” (with ham and cheese) or \”gallettes au poulet et fromage\” ( with chicken and cheese):
Travel tips:
- Spend an entire day there: even if you are not an early bird try to wake up and come there early, or at least sleep there in one of its hotels;
- Rent a bike and bike around the island;
- It’s really worth a day of relax in Porquerolles: wonderful sea, nature and also a fortress to visit;
- Unfortunately there’s no possibility to get something different from the expensive boat;
Where to sleep:
There are not so many options if you want to sleep there, but you can opt for:
- Hotel Residence Les Medes: nice hotel plenty of facilities and located at 400 meters from the harbour, prices around 139 Euros per double room per night. Breakfast not mentioned.
- Auberge des Glycines: located at 200 meters from the harbour and 500 meters from Fort St. Agate, buffet breakfast, prices around 169 Euros per double room per night.
- L’Oustaou de Porquerolles, located at 50 meters from the harbour, great seesight, terrace, breakfast included, prices around 180 Euros per double room per night
I consider Porquerolles one of the off the beaten path places to visit.with one the best beaches in Provence,
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