Sanary-sur-Mer: The Prettiest Port Near Toulon (Market, Diving & Exiled Writers)

Some places you visit, and some you simply fall into the rhythm of. Sanary-sur-Mer is the second kind: a small fishing port west of Toulon, all painted boats and pastel houses around a sheltered bay, where the day is measured by the market, the catch and the shade of the plane trees. It is one of the loveliest spots on this coast and, at about 25 minutes from the villa, the easiest of half-days. What most visitors do not realise is that this gentle little port has two of the more surprising stories in the South of France.

One of the best markets in Provence

Start with the market. Sanary's Wednesday morning market is widely held to be one of the finest in Provence, spilling along the quays and through the old streets behind the port: olives and tapenade, peaches and melons, herbs, soap, linen, and the fish landed that morning. Go early, take a basket, and let it set the pace of the day. Even outside Wednesday there is a smaller daily food market and a string of cafes along the front made for a slow coffee with the boats in view.

The port and the pointus

The port itself is the picture. Brightly painted pointus, the traditional Mediterranean fishing boats, sit bow to stern against a backdrop of ochre and pink facades, with the palm trees and the old watchtower closing the frame. It is the kind of harbour people photograph without quite knowing why, and it is at its best in the low light of early morning or late afternoon. Walk the quay, follow the front round to the little beaches, and you have the measure of the place.

The birthplace of modern diving

Here is the first surprise. Sanary is where modern scuba diving was born. In the late 1930s and 1940s, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, with Philippe Tailliez and Frederic Dumas, the trio later known as the Mousquemers, developed and tested the first aqua-lung in these very waters. The old Romanesque tower on the port now houses a small museum devoted to the history of diving and to Frederic Dumas. For anyone who has ever put on a mask, it is a quietly remarkable thing to stand on the quay where it all began.

The capital of German literature in exile

The second surprise is stranger still. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Sanary became the unlikely refuge of the German-speaking intelligentsia fleeing Germany: Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Lion Feuchtwanger, Franz Werfel and Alma Mahler, Arnold Zweig and many others settled in and around the port, so many that it was wryly called the capital of German literature. The English writer Aldous Huxley had come a little earlier and wrote Brave New World while living here. A walk through the town, where plaques mark the villas they lived in, turns a pretty harbour into a piece of European history. It is also exactly the sort of detail that makes Sanary resonate with German and international visitors who know the names.

A swim while you are there

Sanary is not only to be looked at. The town beach sits right by the port, and a short way round the coast the cove of Portissol is a local favourite for an easy swim. Just west, towards Bandol, the rocky inlet of the Plage du Capelan is a fine spot to snorkel. None of it is far, and a dip is the natural full stop to a morning of market and harbour.

How to make a half-day of it

The simplest plan is the best: arrive mid-morning, do the market and the port, take an early lunch on the quay, visit the diving tower if the museum draws you, and finish with a swim before the drive home. Wednesday is the day for the full market, but the port is a pleasure any day. Parking near the front fills quickly in summer, so come early or use one of the car parks a short walk back from the water. Sanary also pairs neatly with Bandol and its vineyards just next door if you want to make a fuller day of it.

Mauricette's Tip

Do Sanary as a morning, not an afternoon. The market is freshest early, the light on the boats is best before the heat sets in, and the cafes on the quay are made for a long breakfast. Buy your lunch at the market, a melon, some tomatoes, a slice of tapenade, then drive back to eat it by the pool. It is the South of France at its most effortless.

Make Villa Mauricette your base

Markets and harbours by morning, the pool and the sea by afternoon: at 25 minutes from Sanary and surrounded by the best of this coast, the villa is the calm base that makes days like this easy. See the house and book direct (best rate, up to 10% less than the platforms).

Explore nearby

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Things to do around Toulon