Experience the best of Fréjus Saint-Raphaël

Fréjus began as a Roman port founded by Julius Caesar in the first century BC, and the arches of its aqueduct, its amphitheatre and the remains of its theatre still stand. In the old centre a fifth-century baptistery sits beside the fortified cathedral and its cloister, and elsewhere in town stands a mosque in the Sudanese style, built in 1930.

Saint-Raphaël, a few kilometres east, is a Belle Époque resort with a seafront promenade, a casino and the domed Romanesque-Byzantine church of Notre-Dame de la Victoire. Behind it the red volcanic rock of the Esterel massif drops to sheltered coves along the Corniche d'Or road toward Cannes, with Agay bay and Cap Dramont on the way. Saint-Tropez lies on the next gulf to the south-west.

Provençal cooking sets the tone: tapenade, ratatouille, grilled fish with olive oil and fish soup, with rosé from the Côtes de Provence vineyards inland. The beaches are at their warmest into September, and yellow mimosa blooms on the hills behind the coast in February.