Bon Voyage

Sailing the French Mediterranean coast is to experience one of the world's greatest and oldest cruising grounds.

Travelling the Mediterranean, or the Middle Sea as the early Arabic traders named this nearly land-locked waterway, is to voyage through the beginnings of western humanity. This fact, among many others, induced me to live on its shores for nearly eight years and return regularly since then. 

Its weather changes can be severe, in part due to famous winds that include the southerly flowing Mistral and Tramontana, the easterly flowing Poiniente, the westerly Levante and the northerly flowing desert blasts of the Sirocco. These systems can generate short, steep seas when angry winter time gales blow, but in the summer months, when thousands of yachts arrive from Europe and beyond, they are generally serene — as they were during my September voyage when I double-handed a new catamaran along nearly the length of the French Mediterranean coast.

SETTING SAIL

Sailing out of the Vieux Port in Nice is a good way to begin a voyage along this rock strewn, beach encrusted coastline — it's also a popular place to pick up a charter yacht. A true international city that was Italian until Napoleon marched through on his way to defeat by the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo, the English then descended upon its grandeur and created the seven kilometre long Promenade des Anglais. A favourite climb of mine above the city is up the Grand Corniche limestone slopes that plunge down into nearby Monte Carlo.

The route is part of the historic Aurial Way, a vast Roman road between Italy and Spain that takes the coastal route through southern France. If you hesitate on the Corniche and look north, the foothills of the Alps can be seen, while gazing west allows the mariner to plan a voyage to the far reaches of France. 

CATAMARAN COASTING

So it was this last summer as we motored the brand new Bali 5.4 catamaran past the old port of Cannes towards the nearby Lérins Islands. These islands have a sheltered but rocky channel, the Plateau du Milieu, which is one of my favourite anchorages. One island, Sainte Honorat, is home to an order of monks based in the Lérins Abbey who are also wine makers, fermenting Chardonnay (Saint Césaire) and Viognier (Saint Cyprien) grapes, as well as sturdy reds like Pinot Noir (Saint Salonius). Across the narrow channel, the other island, Sainte Marguerite, with its Fort Royal was where the Man in the Iron Mask was incarcerated and written about by Alexandre Dumas. 

September winds are generally mild, so in the light breeze I sat comfortably at the wheel on the Bali's flybridge with the gennaker and mainsail pulling. A gennaker is essential for Mediterranean sailing, unless the droning of diesels is your thing, so the Bali's cutter rig layout with a small self-tacking jib for those sudden blows typical of the region is ideal — something to bear in mind if you're considering an ex-factory delivery, allowing a season here before heading to the southern hemisphere via the Atlantic and Panama Canal. 

Other notable features on this four cabin 50 foot catamaran built by the experienced Catana yard is the large foredeck lounge and vast sheltered aft cockpit, making it an ideal boat for warm waters. Company representative Will and I were delivering it back to the yard near the Spanish border and dropping off two passengers during the 300 mile voyage west. 

As I gazed out from the helm around me, superyachts lined the bay of Cannes and small craft headed to the snug inlets along the rocky coast with its dramatic backdrop of red sandstone peaks of the Massif des Maures Esterel. My views gradually changed to reveal long yellow beaches and pine forests running down from the hills at the ancient Roman town of Frejus. Here, I'd once motorcycled over the mountainous Aurial Way with the scent of pine and lavender thick in the cold air, before heading alongside the town’s 2000-year-old aqueduct and fossicked in the ruins the once mighty Roman Empire had built. 

Beyond, the low lying Bay of Saint Tropez was another favourite for its golden beaches and still quaint village feel around the busy fishing port, a place where I watched the supermaxi Magic Carpet rub hulls with humble trawlers. Back in the 1950s, when Brigitte Bardot came to star in the movie And God Created Woman, this had all begun to change. 

The 16th century citadel with its maritime museum is an interesting place for visiting sailors who can also enjoy the commanding vistas across the shallow bay that hosts the prestigious Les Voiles de Saint Tropez regatta in September. On our catamaran we sailed past some likely participants, such as a J-class reproduction, and I’d been aboard the 96 foot carbon supermaxi Seativs, newly launched from the Italian Southern Wind yacht. 

SNUG ANCHORAGES

Glamour boats and beautiful people are de rigueur on the Cote d'Azure but more importantly for the cruising sailor is the fact a marina is generally never more than an hour away. The coast beyond Saint Tropez is one of the most popular in the entire region and, again, a favourite of mine, so I aimed our bows to the Isles D'Hyres, a group of islands just east of the major naval city of Toulon. On the way, we were approached at high speed by a military launch to be warned that manoeuvres were under way, so we threaded our way past destroyers and troop landing ships before I dropped anchor in the sheltered bay of Isle d'Porquelles. The two of us dived into the clear warm water to cool down as the sun set over the nearby medieval castle. We needed to be fresh and alert before the approach to the grandest harbour in all France: Toulon. 

Along with Brest on the Atlantic coast, this ancient naval port is dotted with forts, arsenals and boatyards. The French built their first submarine here and also scuttled their fleet here in WWII, rather than let the invading Germans sieze it. Protected by the natural breakwater of Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer peninsula that's a lovely day jaunt from the town, Toulon is a rugged navy town but with several marinas. It's a place where the shops sell many kinds of penknives and some of the largest pairs of knuckledusters I've ever seen, and is also home to the best maritime museum on the coast which charts the early seafarers and modern France’s nuclear powered navy. 

The town's cobbled streets mix chic haute couture emporiums with raunchy bars populated by young men staring hard at you with buzz-cut hairdos. Like nearly all major Mediterannean towns the train goes through the city, so it's an ideal crew change port, which is why we were there to drop off our two guests.

Sailing out of Toulon under darkness, our AIS plotter screen was festooned with targets so I was apprehensive. The screen before me was full of dots — incoming fast African ferries, erratically moving targets that were fishing boats and then of course the unseen craft without AIS. To take my mind off it, I thought of the town we were passing that produced my favourite rosé wine, Bandol. Mediterranean French supermarkets have dozens of shelves purely devoted to rosé, the great wine of this entire region, and Bandol is one of the best. It’s pale, showing that most of the sugar has been fermented out and my first ice cold sip is always one of the best moments of my day when on this coast, especially in one of the bars in the old communist town of La Ciotat, to the west of Bandol. Here, as I enjoyed my seafood plate de jour and watched a big match like PSG versus local rivals Marseilles, the boom of the shipyard is a reminder that this remains a working town. 

Strolling around La Ciotat, the old drydocks and dilapidated sheds hark back to the days when this yard launched some of the mightiest supertankers before they closed and partly recovered through a workers buyout. In more recent times, a new international workforce and German companies Lurssen and Blohm & Voss turned it into a superyacht hub with lines of white boats awaiting anti-fouls or full refits. 

In town, the small working harbour gives good protection if you can secure a berth, but it's not a place to dwell if the Mistral starts, as it often blows for three days at a time. Here, an early morning jog took me to the Cap Canaille rocky promontory above the town which boasts France's highest cliffs (394m), giving vistas of the infamous Golfe Du Lion to the west and the cobalt blue sea below.

CROSSING THE GOLFE DU LION

Our crossing of the Golfe Du Lion put us on the most exposed part of the coast and a place where the Mistral funnels strongly down through the Massif Cenral region and into the Calanques National Park, one of France’s greatest natural coastal regions. The deep water makes anchoring challenging so lines are run ashore through rings but, there’s practically no tide to worry about so you can safely glide into the many picturesque inlets that make this region very popular. Moor here for a day’s hike up the high limestone cliffs along the route that leads to the quaint town of Cassis, famous for its wine festival in May and Fêtes de la Mer in June. 

When anchored below these cliffs, the sky to the west has a pronounced glow at night, revealing France's second major city, Marseilles. Sailing through its ancient harbour ramparts is a special moment for the cruising sailor as you pass hundreds of moored yachts, but sensibly the major ferry port is further west. 

The stone quays are home to some of the liveliest bars on the coast and the floating yacht club is a regular haunt of mine when in town. Here, crews of the latest Fast 40s mix with Mini Transat solo skippers and a host of other sailing classes, confirming that you are in the great yachting nation. Stretch your legs during the steep climb to the Notre-Dame de la Garde cathedral for distant views along the coast where the dramatic mountains give way to miles of low lying scrub and swamp, the Camargue wetlands. It’s a place where I've watched horses being traded and the region has one of my favourite inland towns, Arles, where Van Gough settled to live beside the Roman amphitheatre before painting his famous sunflowers. 

Much less dramatic for the cruising sailor, these flatlands have plenty chandlery services to offer, especially at the largest yachting hub on the entire coast, La Grande Motte. I return here annually for Europe's major multihull show in March. This coast of popular holiday beaches surrounding the grand city of Montpellier is also the place for inland boaters and those who want to enter the mighty Rhone. Just a bit further west is France's oldest inland waterway, the Canal du Midi at Sete. Sète flourished after the completion of the Canal Du Midi and became known as the Venice of the West because of its myriad waterways, and if you stride around the old port as I enjoy doing, you'll see boulangerie windows filled with special pies, the Tielle Sétoise (squid and tomato pie). 

Sète is famously known for its Festival of Saint Louis, which is a waterborne jousting competition where the combatants stand on the pulpits of their respective vessels and rowers propel them into combat. A working fishing town, where large tuna boats speed past you as you sail towards it, Sète has enough room for visiting yachts and for the many cabin cruisers transiting the canals. Its lagoon, Étang de Thau, is a popular wintering anchorage for visitors.

Sailing beyond Sète, we near the land of the Catalan, the people and culture that exists on both sides of the border with Spain. Inland, the low lying scrub rises to the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains and we know our voyage is ending as our catamaran glides into the small seaside resort of Canet-en-Rousson's marina. 

CHARTERS ON THE RIVIERA

Many bareboat charters are based near the St Tropez region for quick access to tranquil cruising grounds around Porquerolles and the chic town of Hyères, which has lots of marina space. Hyères is on the train line and only half a day's sail from Cannes and even nearer the city of Toulon with its grand harbour.

Boatbookings.com has a Dufour 512 listed for Euro 5000–6500 per week based in Hyères. This is a spacious five cabin yacht that sleeps 10 and sails well. Monohulls predominate, given the busy marinas. Other charter hubs in the region include Antibes, one of my favourite towns, just to the east of Cannes. Onshore, there’s art museums such as the cliff top Picasso Museum and for book lovers, the home of the great English writer Graham Greene is nearby. Another major charter hub further west is France's second largest city of Marseilles which has several yachting events during the summer, including the final of the SailGP foiling catamarans.

Motorboat charters are even more prevalent, and convenient given the fickle summertime winds. The major city of Nice is a good base to rent something like a luxury Jeanneau Prestige 390S that sleeps two and has room for nine day guests. For a day, the charge is Euro 1980 from yacht-riviera.com. From Nice the exquisite cliffs and coves around Monte Carlo can be explored, while further east, sandy beaches are ideal for shallow drafted motorboats.

MORE INFO

Mediterranean Cruising Guide by Rod Heikell

Letters from the Med by Andrea & Ian Trealevan (Australia)

noonsite.com

wikicruising.com