We have now added a new beach to the increasing list of beaches. The Calanque St Barthelemy is a small pebble beach with ideal conditions for snorkeling. The pebbles provides crystal clear water and there are several creaks and caves both to the left and right which are fun to explore. See the full information page by clicking this link.
We have now added a new walk with online map, and navigation instructions. This walk will take you to the Gorges de Siagne, a beautiful canyon close to the St Cezaire village. The walk takes you along the Siagne river with waterfalls and old bridges. Pay special attention to the Pond De Tuves bridge from 1802, which is a main sightseeing attraction in the area because of the beautiful scenery. Here is a link to the full guide.
I had a really nice walk at Cap Dramont one late afternoon. I have created a walking guide with online map for your mobile phone, video’s and a lot of other content. This walk is one of my top recommendations for the area. Remember to bring your best camera, because you want to take many pictures… Here is the link to all the details
Check out this new timelapse movie. It even contains directions from the house to each and every timelapse location in case you want to jump in the car and make a quick visit!
We have added information about a 2 hour boat trip with daily departures and arrivals. It follows the picturesque coastline of the l’Esterel mountains. Check it out here at this webpage filled with images of what you can expect and detailed information with timetables, location and prices.
One of our favourites walks from the house is up to the Gorges du Blavet, and up to the Grotto:
https://ourhouseinprovence.wordpress.com/walk-to-gorges-de-blavet-and-grotto/
If you are interested in walking in the beautiful landscapes of Provence and the French Riviera, please check out all the walks we have created online maps for:
https://ourhouseinprovence.wordpress.com/hiking-in-provence/
Important: All maps are available online, and from this summer roaming costs are the same as in your home country all over Europe. This means that you can have the maps open and continously verify that you are on “track”, and how far you have left.
See ‘Booking’ menu item for availability and prices.
Very happy to see that according to EU’s big survey, all the beaches in the area have excellent water quality. Other areas in France, Italy and other European countries seem to have more problems with clean water.
After a fine day visiting the beautiful medieval city of Les Arcs Sur Argens, we were looking forward to visiting Chateau Sainte Rosaline, an excellent vineyard/chapel combo offering not only wine tasting opportunities, but also art, history and the mummified body of a Saint (!). We had read up on this estate and for our family this turned out to be the perfect sightseeing opportunity for many different reasons.
St.Rosaline is much more than only a vineyard offering wine-tasting. It is a bit like a kinder egg with many attractions both for the grown-ups and also for the children…
This Grand-Cru vineyard turned out to be one of the most visitor friendly estates we have ever visited. After you have parked your car, you may walk among the grape ranks. We were there in the middle of winter, and with no leafs you get an extra good look at the grape trunks. We look forward to walking here again later this summer to see the huge difference between on / off season.
The shop is really beautiful and the Chateau has put a lot of effort into making a shop with modern design and architecture. Visitors are of course able to sample the award winning wines before committing to any purchases. In addition to wines there are also a range of other locally grown products for sale.
For our two boys aged 4 and 9 the highlight of the visit was the opportunity to see a real mummified body. In this historic Chapel the body of Sainte Roseline, conserved for centuries under a glass case is on full display. Visitors and pilgrims come from all over France and Europe to pay tribute to her spiritual work. For our two boys this was a fascinating sight, and I must admit, for the adults in the family as well…
Another reason to visit the chapel is the beautiful mosaic created by Marc Chagall. Chagall’s Mosaic represents “the Meal served by Angels”. The monumental work of Art was made in 1975.
Chapelle de Ste-Roseline is marked as a top-choice sightseeing attraction in Lonely Planet. We had a lovely afternoon-winter-visit to St. Rosaline, and definitely plan to be back again with friends and family later this year! The location is only about 20 minutes from our house – here are directions.
If you want to read more about St. Roseline, you will find more details at this site.
The chapel is open to the public every afternoon except Mondays.
Official Website: link
More Images and Video’s
Les Arcs-Sur-Argens is a small medieval village located only about 20 minutes from our house. It is a bit embarrassing but prior to this trip we had never actually visited this beautiful little town. So equipped with our campagnettes and cameras we started our little sightseeing journey around noon this Tuesday in February.
The GPS was kind enough to take us on small gravel roads instead of the direct highway with the added bonus of seeing some of the local vinyards with the wine-ranks naked in their winter habitat:
In Les Arcs there are plenty of parking spaces in the new part of town, just next to the town square. This is where you find all the small cafes and restaurants, probably busy during summer, but now most of them closed for the season. Still this part of town was fairly lively, centered around the big square and the Hotel de Ville:
But the interesting part of Les Arcs is when you start walking up to the old medieval part of town (vieux ville). When passing through the Clock tower gateway we discovered a medieval environment with its mixture of steep streets and old buildings. For about an hour we just wandered through the beautiful streets, almost by ourselves on this nice winter afternoon. Here are some of our photo’s from the visit – light conditions where not ideal with a low winter sun creating challenges, but the narrow streets are beautiful providing some nice photo opportunities. Click for full screen slideshow:
The old town is located on a hilltop, and when you walk all the way to the top, there is an old castle made into a hotel which seemed very nice. The hotel resturant was recommended by the Michelin guide, so we made a note of this for future reference.
After our stroll around the old town, which included a visit to an old olive square where we learnt that fresh olives picked of the trees have quite a strong color which may tarnish your clothes if you are not careful (!), we went down again towards our cars, ready for the next adventure of the day. Just outside Les Arcs lies the famous vinyard Sainte Rosaline.
Les Arcs is a very well known place for Cotes de Provence wine making. Thanks to the river of Argens, the quality of the vines and land, a dozen of prestigious vineyards produce this regions famous wine…
Pictures from the visit to Sainte Rosaline will soon be available in an upcoming blog…
Villa Soleil 