May 2010
Monthly Archive
The best area in Provence…says Anthony Peregrine of the Telegraph
Posted by aiwood on 13 May 2010 | Tagged as: News
Hyères-les-Palmiers
Around this time last year, I had lunch at a beachside restaurant just outside Hyères. On the table before me was a plain-grilled John Dory and a bottle of rosé. Beyond the terrace, the sands sloped to the sea under a sky full of spring light so clear you could detect infinity. There was nobody about because the rest of Europe was having sandwiches in the office.
The waiter came across to clear my plate. “Would you mind if I lingered over the last of the wine?” I asked. “For the next 25 years?”
The Provencal coast in the Var départment is one you come across with both a leap in the heart and the deepest satisfaction. The Massif-des-Maures mountains edge the Mediterranean in a last burst of rocks and forest, here and there granting creeks, paths and innocent beaches.
In summer, they’re splendid. In spring, they’re better. You may get out of the car, throw off your cardigan and pretend they’re all yours.
Unravelling down their hillside, the old stones of Bormes-les-Mimosas are overwhelmed with multi-hued horticulture.
And there’s more startling spring gardening yet, east along the corniche at the extraordinary Domaine du Rayol (www.domainedurayol.org) Staggering steeply to the sea, the domaine’s 48 acres are coated in abundant exotica from every region of the world sharing a Mediterranean climate. I took my green-fingered wife there a while ago, and had to return a couple of months later to find her.
And Hyères is, I reckon, the best spring base for this exceptional region. For a start, it’s full of palm trees. These are always reasons to be cheerful. Climbing up and over itself, the warren of old streets is as feisty as a Provencal town should be. Take a table on Place Massillon and you’re at the centre of a Mediterranean life that’s been boisterous since the Greeks. Let me suggest the Bistrot de Marius (0494 358838, www.bistrotdemarius.fr, menus from £17.50)
Then there’s the fancier town of frothy villas created when Hyères caught the eyes of the 19th-century fashionable. Queen Victoria was here. So were Robert Louis Stevenson and Tolstoy. So don’t hesitate. The airport’s next door. Hyères is terrific. Buses will get you along the coast, and also to the ferry for the Hyères isles.
These are barely touched and car-free, the French Riviera as it was before it became The Riviera. Right now, forest and fauna are reawakening. Walk or cycle out to Plage Notre Dame on Porquerolles island. You’ll agree: 25 years is a minimum.
