Bandol — Var Coast & Sanary: private taxi tour

A morning on the Var coast is a succession of three small harbours, each with its own character. We start with Sanary-sur-Mer, one of the most beautiful flowered villages of France. I like to arrive around ten o'clock: the multicoloured pointus rock gently in the harbour, fishermen unload sardines and sea bream on the square, and under the plane trees the market overflows with tomatoes and courgette flowers. It was in Sanary that Thomas Mann and Aldous Huxley took refuge in the 1930s, and the village has kept the gentleness they described in their letters. Then I head up to Six-Fours-les-Plages. The chapel of Notre-Dame du Mai, perched on Cap Sicié 350 metres above the waves, offers one of the finest panoramas of the Mediterranean: the Toulon harbour on one side, the bay of Bandol on the other and, on a clear day, as far as the Hyères islands. You breathe the sea air and listen to the waves far below. Back to Bandol along the corniche. Call +33 6 98 46 63 34.