Marseille has been designated European Capital of Culture for 2013. For film fans the Mediterranean city is where Gene ‘Popeye Doyle‘ Hackman hunted down drug lords in The French Connection II. Then there’s iconic St Tropez, a jetsetters’ playground, where actress Brigitte Bardot, one of the best-known sex symbols of the Sixties, was ‘discovered’. Think Cannes and it’s probably the world's most prestigious annual film festival that springs to mind. Guest writer Suzanne Cantrille drives the Cote d’Azure with a film enthusiast.

The old port of Marseille

Day 1. Marseille
Let’s cut straight to the chase with a couple of important “do’s and don’t’s”. If you are hiring a car locally, as we did, discover Marseille first, then rent the car: if you arrive in your own car lock it up in a safe parking lot while exploring the old city. Do not make this trip in the height of the summer season, when the Cote d'Azur becomes a bumper-to-bumper driving experience. April to June, and September-October are the best times, especially when driving along the coastal roads of the French Riviera.

We started off our stay in Marseille on foot with a visit to the Vieux Port (or ‘old harbour’), which has been around for much of the city’s 2,600-year history: Marseille is not only the second biggest city in France, it is also the oldest. The old harbour is shaped like a horseshoe, with the Quai du Port and Quai de Rive Neuve making the uprights and the Quai de la Fraternité  (formerly the Quai des Belges) the bend: much of it has become a giant yachting marina, with shoulder-to-shoulder brasseries and restaurants.

Marseille's bustling fish market, the Quai des Belges Market, sits on the water's edge at the Vieux Port. The market runs from 08.00 to 13.00 every weekday. I was travelling with an ardent film buff who was in his element as the fish market was an important location in French Connection II – though the film is not something the local tourist office really wants to talk about, or so it seemed.

My movie geek friend was also eager to explore another location featured in the film, a quartier called Le Panier (panier means basket in French). The area once had a very unsavoury reputation -- it has cleaned up its act, but still has an edgy air about it. Back in the Seventies, Le Panier was where heroin was purified in illicit backroom factories by the local mafia and shipped to the United States – ‘the French connection’.  You begin to understand the tourist office’s reluctance to discuss the ‘film connection’.

Le Panier is one of the oldest parts of Marseille, but what you see today is only a shadow of its historic self.  During World War Two, thousands of Jews and others sought by the Nazis took refuge in Le Panier’s maze of medieval streets. In a bid to flush them out, Hitler ordered the whole district to be dynamited, giving its inhabitants twenty-four hours to leave before blowing it up.

We stopped off for lunch (of sorts) at one of the typical local bars: refreshing mint tea, a colourful, crunchy North African salad and a tasty warm baguette. Four locals played dominoes and drank pastis at a marble-topped table. The bar owner watched a cycling race on a fuzzy television screen. But there was no sign of Gene Hackman’s New York cop, ‘Popeye Doyle’, who staked out the area in French Connection II.

The Vielle Charite, a centuries-old almshouse, is situated in the middle of Le Panier: it now hosts the excellent Museum of Mediterranean Archaeology and the Museum of Art of Africa, Oceania and Amerindia, both set to be a big attraction when Marseille becomes the European Capital of Culture in 2013. The museums are open daily, except Mondays and public holidays.

Later in the day we enjoyed the distinct north African souk-like atmosphere of the Marche des Capucins, situated just off La Canebiere, Marseille’s main thoroughfare.Think cous-cous and herb stalls, a cacaphony of languages and dialects, the air thick with the fragrant smell of spices – but watch your belongings, because they could attract the omnipresent nimble-fingered pickpockets (having said that, overall the city is fairly safe: no need for paranoia).

Then it was on to Cours Julien, a one-time fruit market that has transformed into an artistic colony with bars and ethnic restaurants, art galleries and boutiques: a showcase of North African fashions, cuisines from the Middle East and Asia and the pulsating music of west Africa. Cours Julien is home to several designers – check out the Oogie Lifestyle store, which offers a selection of top-end clothing brands and shabby chic vintage pieces, great sounds (looking for old vinyls?) and a busy brasserie. When the sun goes down, Cours Julien becomes one of Marseille’s favourite night spots. Recommended.

The Monte Cristo island

Before leaving Marseille the next day, we made a quick boat trip out to the Chateau d'If, located on a small island close to the harbour. The sixteenth-century castle, which was originally built to defend the city, later became a prison -- its forbidding cells are chillingly well preserved. The island is famous as the penal setting in the Alexandre Dumas novel The Count of Monte Cristo. The castle area was where the French drug boss, dubbed ‘Frog One’ by his nemesis, Popeye Doyle, holds a secret meeting to finalise a massive drugs shipment to New York in French Connection I – the film location was the main reason for our short excursion.

Chateau d'If is open daily (check for seasonal opening times) and admission costs four euros. Boats leave regularly from Quai des Belges at the Vieux Port (hourly 09.00 to 17.00, with the last return at 18.50). The journey takes around twenty minutes and costs eight euros. The views of Marseille from the island are really magnificent.

You can skip the beaches while in Marseille, they are not much to write home about – but if you are a foodie you will want to taste Marseille’s famous bouillabaisse: it’s a two-course meal -- first the soup, then the fish. Be prepared to pay fairly high prices for an authentic bouillabaisse, which has to be ordered in advance at some restaurants.

Accommodation options: Le Ryad, Escale Oceania Marseille Vieux Port, Best Western Paradou Mediterranee

Day 2. Depart: Marseille  O/night: Sanary-sur-Mer Approx: 72 kms
We left Marseille on the D559, which links Marseille to Toulon, by way of Cassis, La Ciotat and Bandol (there’s a spectacular cliff top detour with many twists and turns between Cassis and La Ciotat).

Cassis is still a small fishing port, but its fishing community now shares the harbour with sleek yachts and an array of tourist boats. It’s only half-an-hour or so from Marseille, though it took us slightly longer as the Marseille traffic was chaotic as usual. We had earlier considered staying in Cassis rather than Marseille, but visiting the city’s film locations had won the day. Incidentally, we found it slightly cheaper to hire a car in downtown Marseille than at the airport.

Cassis is a popular tourist destination – there are several fine sandy beaches in the area including a popular nudist beach. It is also famous for its stunningly steep rocky cliffs (falaises) and majestic sheltered inlets called calanques. Take a boat trip: you can cruise three calanques in little under an hour for thirteen euros, five calanques in just over an hour for fifteen euros, or all eight in two hours for nineteen euros. We took the shorter trip – we wanted some time to discover the local wines before continuing.

The calanques at Cassis

Cassis is known for its herby white wines: distinctive and full of character, most never leave the region. By the way, the wines of Cassis should not be confused with crème de cassis, which is a blackcurrant-based specialty of Burgundy. The wines, the boat trip and a mild September climate made our short visit to Cassis thoroughly enjoyable.

From Cassis we took the narrow, winding Route des Cretes to La Ciotat  (D141) – it offers magnificent views all the way as it follows the impressive Falaises de Soubeyranes, or Soubeyranes cliffs. The eagle owls, kestrels, peregrine falcons and many other species to be spotted along the route make it a bird watchers’ paradise.

La Ciotat is where the Lumieres brothers made one of the world’s first moving pictures back in 1895 -- L Arrive d’un Train en Gare de la Ciotat (The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat). Hardly a blockbuster movie, but it amazed and thrilled the audience.  The oldest cinema in the world still stands in La Ciotat -- the Eden Theatre, where the Lumieres staged the first public showing of their film.

Bandol was our next port of call, once again we were attracted by the local wines. Bandol boasts one of the oldest vineyards in France, the first vine having been planted in the area by the Romans some 2,500 years ago. Bandol is recognised as producing some of the best red wine in Provence. Stop by the Maison des Vins de Bandol for a free tasting from a selection of dozens of local wines – you’ll feel guilty if you don’t buy a bottle (or two) at affordable estate prices.

One of Bandol's wineries

Bandol is also a well-established seaside resort. Sandy beaches, cliffs, inlets and creeks surrounded by hills of pines and willows are all part of the beautiful natural environment. We were tempted to stay in Bandol, but pushed on to Sanary-sur-Mer, just a fifteen minute drive away.

Sanary sits on a bay encircled by hills. Although it is not far from the Riviera's other better-known destinations, it is not so well-known outside France: it attracts fewer tourists and has no high-rise hotels. You can chill out on the nearby beach at Port-Issol, and wander through the narrow, car-free back streets, which are lined with boulangeries, cafes and boutiques. Does it sound inviting? It is.

Sanary has strong literary connections. When Hitler came to power in Germany in the early Thirties, a great number of the country’s writers and intellectuals left and settled in Sanary – including Thomas Mann, the author and Nobel Prize laureate; and the playwright and poet, Bertolt Brecht.

Sanary had earlier appealed to several English authors. Aldous Huxley, probably best known for his Brave New World, took up residence with his brother Julian and their wives back at the start of the Thirties; and this soon drew other English writers of the day, including D.H Lawrence (Lady Chatterley’s Lover) and his German-born wife, Frieda.

The harbour at Sanary-sur-Mer

The Hotel de la Tour in Sanary has affordable rooms – and its restaurant specializes in seafood (naturally). The bouillabaisse (half the price of that in Marseille) must be ordered at least a day in advance – which is a good sign. Elsewhere, the inexpensive Café la Marine in Sanaray is one of the restaurants, once patronized by foreign literary exiles back in the Thirties.

Accommodation choices: Hotel de la Tour, Hotel Soleil et Jardin, Hotel Synaya

Day 3. Depart: Sanary-sur-Mer O/night: Gassin  Approx: 100 kms
It took us little more than half-an-hour to get to Toulon from Sanary-sur-Mer, driving on a secondary road that runs east, parellel with the A50 toll road. We were on our way to Gassin, not far from Saint Tropez, but first there were a couple of things we wanted to explore in Toulon, which boasts one of the largest harbours in Europe and one of the best natural anchorages on the Mediterranean. The French Mediterranean Fleet is based in Toulon.

I wanted to visit the Museum of the French Navy (Musee National de la Marine), which is located close to the old port, just a short walk from the Hotel de Ville (the town, or city, hall). It was for some research I was doing. Although the museum isn't large, it offers a unique look at the naval and maritime history of France. The museum dates back to the early nineteenth century, the days of the Emperor Napoleon, and, among other things, houses a fascinating collection of large eighteenth century model ships that were once used to teach seamanship.

Toulon has some interesting literary connections. It figured prominently in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables -- it is the location of the notorious prison, the Bagne of Toulon, in which Jean Valjean spends nineteen years. The prison was created in the time of King Louis XV to house convicts who had previously been sentenced to row the galleys of the French Mediterranean fleet. Joseph Conrad’s last novel, The Rover, is also set around Toulon. All that remains today of the prison is a single small building and a fragment of wall on the southeast side of the port known as Darse Vauban.

Toulon Cathedral, which can be traced back to the fifth century, has an intriguing chapter in its long history: in the mid-sixteenth century it was used as a mosque for some 30,000 crew members from ships of the Ottoman empire, at that time an ally of Francies I,  France's original Renaissance king. The inhabitants of Toulon were temporarily expelled from the city to make room for the Turkish sailors. It took a large royal bribe to persuade the Turkish fleet to leave.

The old town of Toulon, the restored historic centre located between the port, Boulevard de Strasbourg and the Cours Lafayette, is a pedestrian area with narrow streets, small squares and an abundance of fountains. The area is also home to a popular Provencal market that takes place every morning (except Monday) on the Cours Lafayette.

The cable-car in Toulon

If you are interested in military history (or just want a great spot to take a panoramic photo), take the cable car to the top of Mont Faron, which dominates Toulon. It gives direct access to the Memorial Museum of the Allied landing in Provence during World War Two. The top can also be reached by a narrow road which ascends from the west side and descends on the east side – it’s a white-knuckle drive that should only be undertaken by confident drivers.

From Toulon we continued about fifteen kilometres to the medieval town of Hyeres, located about four kilometres back from the sea and clustered around a hillside castle. Hyeres is the oldest resort on the French Riviera: its position, facing the south to the Mediterranean, makes it a popular winter tourism destination. The town is often called Hyeres Les Palmiers, which refers to the local cultivation of palm trees -- about 100,000 trees are exported from Hyeres every year.

Like other resorts along the French Riviera, Hyeres has several literary links: Robert Louis Stevenson once lived at the former Grand Hotel. He described the area as ‘sub celestial’. Leo Tolstoy, one of the giants of Russian literature, also enjoyed the climate of Hyeres; as did the Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist Edith Wharton, who spent her winters in Hyeres every year for almost two decades and did much of her prolific writing there. Hyeres also has a royal connection: Queen Victoria stayed at the Albion Hotel for three weeks in the late 1800s: at the time when a British influence was very strong in the south of France.

Hyeres is also the jumping off point for the islands of Porquerolles, Port Cros and Le Levant. Porquerolles is the largest of the three islands, and it’s best toured by bicycle, available for rent as you step off the ferry. Levant is a favourite with nudists. Port Cros, the smallest of the islands and the hilliest and wildest of the three is mostly a nature reserve, and is located between Porquerolles and Levant. The islands can be visited year round, the best time being between April and June when the flowers are in bloom.

From Hyeres we continued on to Gassin, passing Bregancon, which boasts a fort that serves as an official retreat for French presidents. The fort is built on a small island, connected by a short pier to the mainland. Then came Le Levandou, with its twelve magnificent beaches, and Cavalaire-sur-Mer, which is located on the most southerly bay of the region. Cavalaire boasts a superb three-kilometre beach, with the impressive Pradels mountain range as a backdrop.

From Cavalaire, we turned inland for the short drive to Gassin, which is perched high on a rock overlooking the vineyards, woods and the sea below.

The presidential retreat at Bregancon

The reason for our slight detour to Gassin was that somebody had recommended the Bello Visto hotel-restaurant, and  we were not disappointed. We had an enjoyable set-menu dinner, with a choice from five starters and five main courses, for no more than 28 euros each (plus wine, of course). The rooms at Bello Visto were not large, but pleasant – and better still, they were inexpensive for the French Riviera.

Acccommodation options. Bello Visto Hotel, Hotel Brin d’Azur, Hotel la Villa

Day 4. Depart: Gassin  Arrive: Cannes   Approx 96 kms
We set off for Saint Tropez after a leisurely breakfast, driving via Ramatuelle. Think ramparts, tightly-packed stone houses, pink-tiled rooftops and ancient narrow streets. Part of the charm of Ramatuelle is that while it is next to the legendary resort of Saint Tropez, it remains (relatively) less expensive, less pretentious and less crowded. Another attraction is its fine sandy beaches, exotically named Tahiti, Bora Bora, Lagon Bleu and Mooréa.

Would Saint Tropez have reached the fame it enjoys had it not been for Brigitte Bardot? We argued that one for the ten kilometres of fairly busy road (one to be avoided in summer) leading from Ramatuelle to St Trop, as the locals call it. The truth of it is that Saint Tropez was popular with the ‘beautiful people’ way back in the Roaring Twenties, when it attracted famous figures from the French fashion world, names like Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli.

La Bardotte gave Saint Tropez a new lease of life in the Fifties, when the town was used as a setting for And God Created Woman. She gave the town another push when she turned up in the mid-Sixties with international playboy Gunter Sachs for the inauguration of the now famous Hotel Byblos (and Les Caves du Roy) – it was an international jetsetters’ event.

The way to get around Saint Tropez-style

The resort’s mojo still works, though slightly more favoured by the music world: Lamborghinis and Porches are still pimped, and Ferraris flaunted, the corks pop and champagne flows, high-priced boutiques flourish and credit cards are soon maxed out for many, if not most. Saint Tropez prices are audacious even by Cote d'Azur standards – it’s not my type of town, but it’s a ‘must’ while driving the French Riviera.

For my friend the ‘cinema geek’ (his own term), Saint Tropez had more than just the Bardot pedigree. It was also the setting for the hilarious classic French comedy of the mid-Sixties Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez, starring Louis de Funes, a film that was to spawn five sequels – a bit like the English Carry On series, but in French. As with the French Connection in Marseille, the local tourist office does not seem to enjoy being associated with the film, which in many tourist destinations would have been marked with a statue or something similar.

There is another side to Saint Tropez. On the Place des Lices elderly local men still sip pastis, smoke Gauloises and play pétanques beneath the trees, not fazed at all by the sheer ostentation that surrounds them. And every Tuesday and Saturday morning the same square fills with stalls selling a variety of local products: olives, goat cheese, honey, herbs, Provencal table linens and pottery (you might spot a celebrity looking for a bargain).

We spent very little time in budget-breaking Saint Tropez and drove on round the bay to Sainte Maxime before heading for Frejus, about a 45-kilometre drive.  A tip: the scenic route that separates the medieval Cote d'Azur town of Sainte Maxime from tinseltownish Saint Tropez  is a road to avoid in the summer, when some 30,000 vehicles a day cause massive traffic jams.

Sainte Maxime is very much ‘alive’ all year round, and is slightly (just slightly) less expensive than Saint Tropez. The old town opposite the harbour has an array of shops, markets, restaurants, bars and cafes. The Swedish royal family own a villa in the centre of Sainte Maxime.

The town dates back a thousand years, when monks from from an island off the coast at Cannes built a monastery there.  For centuries fishing was the main industry, then olive oil, wine and cork. In August 1944 the beach of Ste Maxime was at the centre of Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France.

The old town of Frejus

Frejus is a large, sprawling town originally built by Julius Caesar. During its Roman days, Frejus, which was then known as Forum Julii, was a port. Under the Roman emperor Augustus the town became an important naval base: the warships with which he defeated Antony and Cleopatra were built in Frejus. The port has long since silted over, but remnants from Roman times still stand in the old town, including parts of an arena and a theatre. An interesting section called the Cite Episcopale dates to the middle ages, and is home to one of France's oldest ecclesiastical buildings.

Frejus is a very popular summer tourist town: its long stretch of fine sandy beaches are a couple of kilometres away, between Frejus and Saint Raphael: the two are effectively one town. Saint Raphael became a fashionable hangout in the Twenties and has a strong literary connection: it's where F Scott Fitzgerald wrote Tender is the Night.

We took the winding inland route from Frejus to Cannes, driving on RN7, part of which is known as Avenue du Corps Expeditionnaire Francais en Italie (a tribute to several thousand north African soldiers, mainly Moroccan, who fought on the Italian front during World War Two). The road changes name several times as the journey progresses.

We stopped for a while at Les Adrets de l'Esterel, a pretty Provencal village with a wonderful panoramic view of the Riviera that stretches from Saint Tropez to Nice. It is situated very close to the Alpes Maritimes, in the heart of the Esterel mountains, an area covered with forests of pine trees and white heather just a few kilometres from the sea.

Cannes -- home of the world's most famous film festival

The glitzy image of Cannes makes it a very popular conference destination – and that was the reason we were both there (having flown into Marseille, we would be flying out of Nice, a little further along the coast after the conference). Meanwhile, we had  the following day to explore the city and take a boat trip out to the nearby island of Saint Honorat.

Accommodation options: Hotel de Provence, Hotel Splendid, Best Western Mondial

Day 5. Cannes
There's hardly a centimetre of sand along La Croisette's beaches that isn't covered with bronzing bodies in the summer. But it was not summer. Great weather, but summer (and the crowds that go with it) were over.

Cannes has a number of good museums.  We spent a little time at the Musée de la Castre, which has actually become of the city’s premier tourist attractions: it is home to an array of Mediterranean antiquities and archaeological treasures. The museum is located in the ruins of a medieval castle on the hills overlooking the Croisette, and belongs to the Lerins monks The monks also built a lookout tower to warn the town of pirates, which still stands next to the Musee de la Castre.

Foodies will want to explore the old quarter of Le Suquet, and check out the winding cobbled lane lined with several local gourmet restaurants At the bottom of Le Suquet on Rue Dr. P. Gayagnaire is the Marche Forville, where the market is held in the mornings and early afternoon: taste some of the mouth-watering Provencal cheeses, the region’s olives and perhaps buy a bottle or two of pickled lemons (they make great souvenir gifts).

There are one or two interesting islands off the coast of Cannes. Most visitors head for Sainte Marguerite, with its meandering, butterfly-filled forest paths that lead to Fort Royal, where the mysterious ‘Man in the Iron Mask"’was once imprisoned. You can visit his cell in the Musee de la Mer, which is housed in the former island fort. We chose, however, to take the ten-minute ferry ride over to Saint Honorat as we wanted to try the wines being produced by the island’s small group of Cistercian monks at the Abbaye de Lerins.

The monastery cellar on Saint Honorat

Cistercian monks have played an influential role in the history of French winemaking: part of their monastery on Saint Honorat is open to the public. You can see medieval relics from the monastery’s history, and also buy some of the white wines; as well lavender oil, honey a herbal liquor called Lerina,  that the monks produce (also great gift). The wines were excellent, but rather pricey, especially the much talked about pinot noir.

The monastery was created some sixteen hundred years ago and it is said that Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland once studied there. We had lunch at the monastery’s La Tonnelle restaurant – highly recommended: excellent fish at pocket-friendly prices. The restaurant is open for lunch daily throughout the year.

Remember that the ten days in May when the Cannes International Film Festival is staged, is always a period to avoid – unless you are the personal guest of a top Hollywood celebrity.

After Cannes I would have liked to have spent some in nearby Monte Carlo, Nice and Menton, and perhaps continued on to discover the neighbouring Italian coastline– but that’s for another trip – watch this space.

Suzanne Cantrille is a Frankfurt-based Canadian research assistant, who has an interest in European naval history. She has travelled extensively in Europe and North America and her ambition is  to visit all the islands in the Mediterranean.