Things to do in Toulon

Nature · Directly behind the city

A limestone mountain rising straight off the rooftops, reached by a cable car, with the whole bay and the fleet laid out below.

Local tip: Go up in the late afternoon when the light is on the water and the heat has gone. The road up is a series of one-way hairpins that locals treat as a cycling test; the cable car is the sane option and it is cheap. Check the summer fire-risk access map before planning a walk on the summit paths.

Food · Old town

A long daily market under plane trees running the length of the old town's main avenue — produce, fish, olives, spices and cade.

Local tip: Come before ten and buy at the far end, away from the tourist-facing stalls. Have cade from the wood oven at one of the old-town bakeries afterwards; it is Toulon's answer to Nice's socca and locals will tell you at length why it is better.

Neighborhood · East of the centre, below the forts

The city's own seaside quarter — a village of small streets behind four sheltered sand beaches, with a sixteenth-century fort at the point.

Local tip: The beaches are municipal, free and genuinely good, which is rare on this coast. Walk the coastal path east from Fort Saint-Louis toward Cap Brun for the calanques and swimming spots that have no car park and therefore no crowd.

Nature · Across the rade

Scheduled passenger boats crossing the bay to the far shore, its long beach and the peninsula village at the harbour mouth.

Local tip: It is on the ordinary bus ticket, so the best cheap outing in the city is a return crossing at sunset. Saint-Mandrier is a working village rather than a resort — eat at the port, walk to the lighthouse, and take the boat back rather than the road.

Nature · Îles d'Hyères, east of the city

Two national-park islands off the Var coast — one with vineyards, bicycles and white-sand beaches, the other essentially a protected forest and marine reserve.

Local tip: Go out of season. In July and August the boats and the island are both saturated and the visitor numbers are capped. In May, June or September Porquerolles is a different place entirely, and Port-Cros — where there are no cars and no bikes at all — is the one people underrate.

Culture · City centre, beside the port

The rugby ground wedged into the middle of the city, where the Rugby Club Toulonnais crowd performs the Pilou-Pilou before kick-off.

Local tip: This is the single fastest route into local life for a newcomer, and tickets for a mid-table home fixture are not hard to get. Learn the Pilou-Pilou beforehand — the crowd performs it in unison and standing silently through it is conspicuous.