Paris

Long before Cannes and Nice became so popular, the British stayed already over winter in HYERES, walked during hot summers over the cool hilltops without even considering the sea, not worth even a glance in their mind.
At the very beginning of the 18th century, when the train arrived in Hyeres, it started to become famous for its mild winters, but also for its market-garden cultivations and its nurseries, where rare and exotic species of trees were growing.
In the 19th century, the city changed completely and assumed an aristocratic appearance. Bright and welcoming, with its mild and salutary climate, Hyères attracted many famous winter tourists, like Queen Victoria, Lamartine, Tolstoi, Michelet, Stevenson, Godillot. They settled and built de luxe hotels and wondrous villas. Michelet, the queen of Spain, and before them Mme. de Stael, Talleyrand came to appreciate the city of palm trees.
Does the Riviera start in Hyères? Anyway it is the most southern of all Riviera cities and the symbol of all Riviera beauty. Although it is often today viewed as an unfashionable and slightly shabby cousin of the “real” Riviera towns, this unfair reputation has its seeds in Queen Victoria’s flippant patronage of Hyères in 1892, for no sooner had hotels and palm-lined avenues been built in honour of her Majesty and her entourage than she decided to move on to Cimiez, rendering the town “passé” almost overnight. Nevertheless it stayed in fashion especially between the two world wars (in the money nobility circles and the nobility with money). But the town visitors niveau degraded a lot when the municipality decided to concentrate its energy on caravan owners and camping visitors.
But the French never ceased really visiting Hyères and it has long been a centre for the seriously “sportif”, who take advantage for the subtropical climate to sail, scuba-dive, windsurf and water-ski.
There are now three vast leisure ports and 35 km of beaches to be sampled. The town is not totally dependant on tourism since it is surrounded by vast greenhouses cultivating early fruits such as strawberries, peaches and kiwis as well as ornamental plants, rare flowers (orchids) and potted palms. The busy atmosphere of the modern town combines charmingly with its backdrop of faded “belle- époque” grandeur.
The town continues to link itself to experimental cinema and has held an International Festival for young cinema for 25 years.
Hyères-Ville, located 5km from the sea is worth a small visit for its old quarters. Have a coffee under the plane trees of the PLACE DE LA REPUBLIQUE before starting the steep climb to its picturesque, twisting, medieval streets up to the ruins of a 14th century chateau. You see now the CHURCH SAINT LOUIS where he came to pray after his first crusade. Entering old town find now the PLACE MASSILLON, where a food market is held each morning, and Arab and Provencal delicacies can be bought. It is overlooked by the “TOUR SAINTE BLAISE”, a massive abside of an ancient Knights Templar command post. On the left is the COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF SAINT PAUL, open 9.30-12.00 and 15.00-19.00, closed on Tuesday. It has a monumental staircase leading to a Renaissance portal. Gothic nave and Roman clock tower. The church houses a stunning ex-voto collection (the oldest dates from 1613).
Continue up the rue Barbacane and walk though an arch to rue du Paradis, where an elegant Romanesque house looks inviting. A steep track snakes past the PARC-ST.BERNARD, a garden of Mediterranean flowers and plants, to the castle. A magnificent panorama will be your reward if you go through all of it.
The American novelist Edith Wharton (1862-1937) fell in love with the view when she first visited Hyères with André Gide in 1915.In 1927 she bought the VILLA SINCLAIR, a country house in fake roman cloister style. It is said that R.L. Stevenson wrote “Treasure Island” when he resided in the villa in 1883. Edith Wharton had won the Pulitzer price in 1920 with her satiric novel “The Age of Innocence” (1920) and received the same price again in 1924 for “Old New York”. Unfortunately she stooped her autobiographic novels in 1934, “A Backward Glance”.
Another artistic-historical spot in Hyères is the villa NOAILLES, tel 0494651855 or 04385091. For those who love 1920 and Bauhaus architecture. The villa was conceived by the Belgian architect Robert Mallet-Stevens for Charles and Marie de Noailles .

Villa Noailles

Works lasted 10 years and will the an experimentation place for all new tendencies in decor and furnishing. It will finally offer a house with about 40 rooms, a squash game room, a gymnasium, and a pool. It’s in this immense volume of superposed cubes and terraces receiving the light through vast glassed bays that they invited their friends who belonged to the highest cultural circles: Luis Bunuel, Man Ray, sculptor Giacommetti, Jean Cocteau and composers like Francis Poulenc and Georges Auric. Certain of them realized works for the cadre of the villa which are famous today. Marie-Laure de Noailles died in 1970 and in 1973 the city bought the villa. Since 1975 it is classified as a "monument historique" and was restored in 1988.

Bibliography:

John Pemble, "the Mediterranean Passion, Victorians and Edwardians in the South", (Oxford University Press 1988), Mary Blume, "Cote d'Azur. Inventing the French Riviera" (Thames and Hudson, London 1982), The Twenties, From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period, by Edmund Wilson (Cannes 1921), “Tagebucher 1918-1937”, by Harry Graf Kessler (Presseschau, Munchen 1961).

From Nice to Saint-Tropez (suite)

Cap d'Antibes

Juan les
Pins-Golfe-Juan-Vallauris

Cannes

Iles de Lerins

La Napoule and Henry Clews

Esterel cornice to Frejus

Frejus

Sainte Maxime to Port Grimaud

Old Grimaud and Cogolin

Saint-Tropez

From Saint Tropez to Cassis

Ramatuelle-Gassin-Croix Valmer-Cavalaire sur mer

Le Lavandou-Bormes les Mimosas