Country:
District:
Coming from Toulon via Six-Fours Centre, at the large roundabout after the town centre, take the Sanary - Les Lones - La Coudoulière - Les Playes (D 559) exit: this will take you to Avenue de la Mer. Go down this road to the roundabout near the Intermarché supermarket, turn left towards La Coudoulière - Collège Font de Fillol, then turn right at the roundabout after the Intermarché car park. (Font de Fillol ring road) and continue to the Coudoulière roundabout, where you turn right onto Avenue du Cap Nègre, then immediately right into the tree-lined car park between the stadium and a group of buildings.
If you are coming from Sanary by the sea, stay on the coastal road until you reach the highest point, where you turn left at the traffic lights towards LEP - Maison du Cygne (Avenue du Cap Nègre). Continue for about 600 metres and enter the tree-lined car park on the left before the roundabout. It is best to go around the roundabout first and then come back to enter the car park on the right. Please note that there are other small car parks on Avenue du Cap Nègre, which you can choose from.
(S/E) From the stadium car park, cross Avenue du Cap Nègre towards the buildings, turn left, then right onto Avenue de la Coudoulière (which is actually a dead end) to pass between the entrance to the residence on the right and the vocational school on the left.
(1) Just after the school, turn left into the shaded car park of the Maison du Cygne and turn right onto the path leading to the Maison du Cygne. Enter the courtyard through a highly stylised metal gate vaguely resembling a swan. The entrance to the exhibition rooms is in the courtyard.
After visiting the house and any exhibitions, if there are any, go around the fountain-wash house located under the covered courtyard to access the gardens. At the bottom of the garden, a passageway leads to the park, where you can admire a very large pine tree and a few sculptures, and follow a path that leaves the grounds through a gate onto Avenue de la Coudoulière. Turn left towards the residences of the Domaine de la Coudoulière, walking along a wall built with tiles. At the end of the path, go through a pedestrian turnstile and continue straight on towards the port, passing under a large porch.
Cross the seafront avenue, then enter the harbour, passing in front of the harbour master's office to the jetty car park. Turn right, either onto the beach or along the riprap, to reach Roches Brunes beach.
As the coastal path, which used to start here, is now closed due to a local landslide and has (God knows why) not been repaired, there are two possible scenarios:
- either the sea is very calm, and you can walk over the rocks at the end of the beach until you find a clear area that allows you to climb back up to the coastal path at a wooden barrier, and continue along this path to point 2.
- or the sea is rough and you can reach the Maison de la Mer, behind the beach, which you go around on the right to climb a staircase to the Parc de la Méditerranée, where you turn left to walk along the shore, first passing above the buildings of the day camp, then in front of a café and an electric car ride, until you reach point 2:.
(2) You will find yourself on a small promontory with a view of the southern coast of Cap Nègre. Opposite you, a small, poorly defined path leads down to the shore. Take this path and walk along the basalt plateau at the foot of the cliff, as far west as possible, to observe the rocks of the cape (two superimposed basalt flows).
Then retrace your steps.
(2) Take the path that leads halfway up the slope to the Cap Nègre battery, crossing a profusion of prickly pear trees. At the end of this path, you will reach the platform on which the small fort is built. It houses permanent exhibitions and is open to visitors.
After visiting the fort, if you wish, go as far as possible towards the end of the cape to observe the basalt flow sinking into the sea from above. Then take the path overlooking the north coast of the cape. As the coastal path that used to start just below the first property overlooking the coast is now closed (supposedly for safety reasons...), go back up to take the road that leads back to Avenue de la Corniche de la Coudoulière. After passing through a gate at a rubbish collection point, turn left.
(3) You will soon see the gate to the Cap Nègre Marina on your left. Go through the pedestrian entrance to reach the seafront, 200 metres further on.
You will then find the coastal path, which you take on the right, passing successively over small beaches and rocks.
(4) After going around a small headland where the path is well maintained and secured by a good handrail, you will find a stairway on the right that leads up to Avenue de la Corniche. leave it for now and continue along the coastal path until you reach Port Méditerranée, which was accessible a few years ago but was closed off due to port works during our last visit. After admiring the rocks, turn back.
(4) From there, go back up to Avenue de la Corniche.
Take this avenue on the left and pass in front of Port Méditerranée.
(5) Turn right onto Chemin des Hoirs, which runs alongside the Pontillot stream. Just after the Sainte-Thérèse Chapel, turn right onto a path that crosses the Pontillot and runs alongside Chemin des Hoirs for about 250 metres.
This path joins Chemin des Hoirs just opposite an industrial building. Leave a private driveway on your right that goes straight up towards the west and continue for about 30 metres.
(6) Just after a double garage, find a dirt path on the right under a grove of pine trees. Follow it to a small square, which you cross to the right until you reach a dirt track. Take this track and continue straight ahead, between a housing estate on the left and private residences and car parks on the right, until you come out near the fire station, which you follow straight ahead until you reach Avenue du Cap Nègre.
Take this avenue on the left and follow it for about 600 metres until you reach the stadium car park on the left (S/E).
Visorando member
Difficult 
Moderate 
