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From a ligurian port to operation romeo
Cavalaire is a good (organised) anchorage. Its port has calm reception pontoons despite the entertainment on the quays in the evening. Although it is not a “typical” village, this resort does not “show off”. Somewhat of a rarity.
On this kind of coast, either you sail at more than a mile from the edge to enjoy the view of the splendid Maures countryside further inland or you graze the rocks within range of the cicadas to take advantage of the transparent, sweet-smelling, chirping creeks. Be careful of the treacherous rocks at the Dattier, Malpagne and Cap Nègre! Otherwise, apart from in the prote
cted areas between the Trésor and Cavalaire headlands and between the Gigaro and Pampelonne beaches, the view is essentially comprised of villas which have sprung up everywhere and which are hidden as much as possible by umbrella pines.
In the first case, three hundred million years are looking down at you from up there… That the name of Maures comes from the red-brown colours of the land (the same etymology as brown in French – “marron”), from the Saracens (the Mauresques, the Mauritania) who occupied the area during the 8th and 9th centuries or from another Arabic word Al Manara (the lighthouse) that can be found at L’Almanarre near to Hyères is of little importance. The high location, the colour of the rocks or its history converge to describe this crest made from very old rocks, which has been transformed dramatically by colossal compressions, and cooked and re-cooked by volcanic activity, culminating at La Sauvette (780 m) and then dropping down above Cavalaire at around 500 m.
THE KING OF THE MAURES
The King of the Maures is the cork oak. Certain forests in the area have specimens which date back several centuries. Thanks to the fire-resistant qualities of its bark, which is used to make bottle corks, the massifs are protected from this scourge. This is why the arsonists, who attempted to have the agricultural zones declassified into building land, got up to their dirty deeds just after the first layer of the cork had been removed and the trunk was bare. But that is a thing of the past now…
And, at the edg
e of the sea, the prince is the sumptuous, the immense and fragile umbrella pine. We might as well call it a giant match in petrol vapours when at the height of summer the sap from the maquis and the resins from the trunks are given off. Before the annual careening period, come and stroll through the Maures in the spring when the wild orchids, rockroses, brooms and asphodels add a momentary touch of bright colours in this eternal green land.
Whether you have just weathered the Lardier or the Cavalaire cape, you will suddenly discover a bay with a wide yellow-arched beach. After the wild landscape, the urban development of this holiday location is most appealing.
If you happen to be on 15 August, think of the hundred thousand or so allied infantrymen, parachutists and commandos which landed in Provence in 1944. During the night of 14 August, the Cavalaire beach – La Croix Valmer was the scene of the first assault wave called Operation Romeo. It was comprised of French commandos from Africa who were commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Bouvet. Their mission was to destroy Nazi defences on Cap Nègre.
All in all, 880 Anglo-American and 34 French vessels, and 1,370 landing craft were used. In the space of two weeks, the Provence was free. The memory of this “other” landing is still extremely vivid today in all these coastal towns and, in the middle of the summer, you will most certainly witness a fervent commemoration here and there.
BACK FROM OBLIVION
But you who are about to land peacefully at Cavalaire sur Mer, bear in mind that before it was called “Heraclea Cacabaria” when it was a small Greek colony and “Cacabaria” in the Gallo-Roman era, the port was already used by sailors in the 20th century BC.
Excavations have enabled us to discover the Oppida in Montjean at 460 m above the current port where the Ligurians lived towards 800 BC and a Roman villa at Pardigon, very near to the beach where perhaps due to a lack of space in the port, you will have to moor the buoys.
But it was during the Middle Ages that “Cavalairo” truly prospered: a large number of boats dropped anchor here as it provided a very good shelter from the Mistral wind and sea wind (called the “Marinade” in this area). Despite the Barbary pirates who prowled along the coastline as if they regretted their permanent presence of the past and the bubonic plague which struck on several occasions here and elsewhere along the coast, Cavalaire survived. And even prospered. Until the Genoese colony who was imported to Saint Tropez turned this practically non-existent commune (see pages 8 to 11) into a town which was so well protected, a port which was so modern and a commercial competitor which was so dynamic that Cavalaire fell into oblivion.
In the same way as Sainte-Maxime (see pages 12 and 13), the town had to wait for sea bathing to come into fashion under the Second Empire and the arrival of the train at the beginning of the 20th century for seaside tourism to provide it with the opportunity of restoring its prestige and restoring its image (in the shape of a seahorse).
