“My house clings to a rock in the Esterel”
A world apart
250 million years ago, when all the continents were still one, the ground beneath what would become Provence cracked open. Magma rose through long fissures, forming volcanic domes. What you see today from the Corniche d’Or – those red rocks plunging into the sea, the jagged peaks, the crimson-and-black coves – is the imprint of that volcanic opera.
The rock is called rhyolite. Its colour comes from the oxidation of iron. It is unique in the Mediterranean, and geologists travel from around the world to study it.
Grand Site de France
The Esterel massif stretches across 32,000 hectares between Saint-Raphaël, Fréjus, Mandelieu and the Fayence countryside. Its highest point, Mont Vinaigre, reaches 618 metres. Very few places on earth offer this combination: such visible volcanism, the sea, extraordinary colours, remarkable biodiversity (Hermann’s tortoises, ocellated lizards, eagles, wild orchids…) and immediate proximity to inhabited areas.
It is for all these reasons that the massif is now a candidate for the Grand Site de France label, alongside the Pont du Gard, the Pointe du Raz and the Puy de Dôme.
A red house
For me, the Esterel is not just a landscape. First and foremost, it is my childhood. My house – the one my father had built – is nestled against the red rock, so much so that two rooms have the rock itself as a wall. Behind it lies the scree. That is where my father took me climbing as a small child, both hands in the rhyolite.
It was in this massif that he gathered stones when we were building the campsite. The large ones he stood upright like menhirs. The small ones I kept in my room. They were my treasures: quartz, pretty red pebbles. I invented a thousand stories around my “precious stones.”
The wild Côte d’Azur
The Côte d’Azur is often spoken of as an overdeveloped coastline. But 80% of Saint-Raphaël’s territory is the Esterel massif. From the campsite, trails set off in every direction – towards hidden little lakes, a cave steeped in legend, a natural pool at the bottom of a valley.
Esterel Caravaning offers all its guests the “Sentiers d’ici” guide, published by Estérel Côte d’Azur, to explore the massif on foot, by bike or on horseback. Because staying here means having all of this extraordinary nature right at your fingertips. The scent of the garrigue, wild irises, orchids in season. The colours of the rocks shifting with every hour of the day – red at sunset, almost black in the morning when the light has not yet touched them.
Sophie and her young
At Esterel Caravaning, in October, you can hear the stags rutting from the pitches. Nearby lies a plain the locals simply call “the deer plain.” Does cross it in silence. Wild boar sightings are not uncommon.
For years, before the site was properly fenced, an entire family of wild boar would show up on summer nights. They were spotted in the campsite lanes, sometimes on the decks of mobile homes. We eventually gave them names: Sophie and her piglets, Riri, Fifi, Loulou. We even turned them into a soft toy, available in the shop!
Between us: “The number of times I came off my horse”
At twelve, I had a horse. My father had grown tired of driving me to Roquebrune every week for riding lessons. He solved the problem by setting up a ranch for Esterel Caravaning’s guests – and needless to say, I was immediately on board.
I would set off into the Esterel at dawn on my horse. The resin of the pines warmed by the rising sun, thyme crushed beneath the hooves, the red earth still cool from the night. I felt as though the whole massif was mine alone.
I am naturally daring, and the massif does not forgive riders in too much of a hurry. I rode down steep screes and ravines. I ended up on the ground more than once. But it never stopped me.
– Aurore
