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Introduction
Saint
Raphaël is a charming but less well known resort town
approximately another 40 minutes down the coast from
Antibes. St Raph for short, and its adjoining “sister”
town, Frejus have a strong roman history and jointly
formed an important stop on the Roman trading routes. It
is rumoured that many of the initial commercial diving
centres where started from the illicit gains of divers
looking for Roman artefacts, particularly vases and
jugs! (“amphores” in French). From a military
perspective, a little further down the road was the site
for one of the main allied landing beaches for the
liberation of France during the second world war. The
most commonly dived wreck in this area is a pair of
large canal barges transporting armaments that were sunk
by British torpedoes.
Saint Raphaël has a thriving casino, a lively nightlife
during the high season, and beaches that stretch round
the bay almost into the town centre. The town centre
itself has a nice atmosphere and parts are
pedestrianised, with a thriving mix of shops, bars and
restaurants. It is also home to a museum on the history
of scuba diving.
As for the diving, the sites vary from three to 40
metres plus depending on experience levels. It is here
in Saint Raphaël that the first tests on the first
prototype of the modern day scuba regulator were
undertaken by Commandant Yves Le Prieur at the “Ile du
Lion de Mer”, a prominent “seamark” and popular diving
spot in the Bay of Saint Raphaël.
Accommodation
is provided where possible by a large and idyllic French
government sports facility (above) in an area which has
huge grounds and good quality B&B accommodation, perfect
if you wish to bring your family.
General Info
Between the Mediterranean and
the Provence, the Esterel Mountains are 32,000 hectares
of volcanic rock of which 13,000 are classified and
protected. This area is a perfect home to many sports
including hiking, horseback riding, climbing, and
mountain biking.
More appropriately, with 5 different harbours, St.
Raphaël the sailing resort is the ideal place for
boating, and of course scuba diving enthusiasts. Along
its 42km of coastline you can discover sandy beaches,
creeks, and inlets, all carved out of the famous red
rock of the Esterel Mountains.
St. Raphaël is also a city that combines tourism and
business. There are seven reception areas and a
municipal conference hall (Palais des Congres) which
frequently hosts a huge variety of different types of
functions such as seminars, conferences and gala
evenings.
You will be able to discover traditional festivities in
every season. There are joust tournaments, celebrations
of St. Baume and St. Pierre, Mimosa Week, Jazz festivals
and other typical live music events.
Town centre
A good explore and walk can be taken by exploring the
narrow, shady alleys of the old town village district,
which historically was the peasants’ quarter. Every day
there is a typical Provencale flower and vegetable
market. The San Raféu church (also called the Templars
or Saint Pierre church) dates from the 12th century and
was modernised in the 18th. The Presbytery houses an
Archeological Museum. You can enjoy a panoramic view of
the bay at the top of the watchtower which was built in
the 13th century.
The “Quartier de la Marine”, was originally a fishing
settlement, becoming a well known seaside resort in the
19th century when the casino and numerous villas were
built. Today this area is the town centre which is the
hub of activity, being the home to many bars,
restaurants and shops.
Ile
D’Or and Dramont
The Ile D’Or is a famous local landmark and is also home
to many of the areas’ dive sites. It was privatised in
1897 and it used to be the arena for sumptuous
receptions when the owner at the time declared he was
king of the island. Its square and imposing watchtower
was built with red rock from the Esterel. The island was
immortalised by Herge, the creator of Tintin in L’Ile
Noire.
The main Dramont beach was one of the principal points
for the Allied landings in Provence. On 15 August 1944,
20,000 GIs from the 36th Texas regiment landed on the
pebbled beach in less than 10 hours with tanks and heavy
artillery. At the foot of the Cap is the very
picturesque fishing harbour of Poussai.
Cap Dramont is part of the state-owned Esterel forest.
This is home to one of the most beautiful and the most
accessible parts of the Coastal Path.
Diving Info
Ile du Lion de Mer (Sea Lion
Island)
A great site and
something of an institution on the Med diving scene,
this island always provides protected diving regardless
of the wind direction. It is a short boat ride from the
dive centre and is a notable feature to be seen from all
along the shores of Saint Raphaël Bay and down the coast
towards Sainte Maxime.
The southern side of the island has a stunning drop off
that is rich in gorgonian coral growth carpeting the
crevices and cracks to a depth of 40 metres. In one area
(La Grotte du Corail – the Coral Cave) there is a great
concentration of red coral, lobsters and nudibranches.
The north eastern side of the island is home to two
statues, La Vierge (The Virgin Mary) and La Sirene (The
Mermaid) and provides a number of safe dives for new and
relatively inexperienced divers. There is a beautiful
natural archway just after a creek that traverses the
island underwater between the East and West sides.
Captured in the right light this feature is stunning.
The Ile du Lion de Mer now also has it’s own wreck, a
sunken pedalo!
Dramont
Clustered around L’Ile D’Or, these sites are a
succession of rocks that come up to fairly shallow
depths, making them accessible to both beginner divers
and those used to diving in depths of anything from 3 to
50 m. Currents are possible here and occasionally they
can be relatively strong but this is quite rare. As the
rocks are side by side with large areas of sand there is
a fantastic biodiversity and a lot of underwater life.
The visibility is often stunning, with a large
population of Grouper plus occasional schools of
Barracuda offering some of the highlights. This combined
with the topography of many of the sites combines to
produce some very interesting diving.
Nearly all of the dive sites are equipped with iron
rings implanted in the rocks to enable protection of the
sites from anchors.
The Christian Beacon (Balise de la Chretienne)
This is a former archaeological sanctuary and the site
of the sinking of twelve ancient ships, a large
percentage from Roman times. This shelf, which has now
been marked with a beacon, was obviously a major
navigational hazard in the past. The site has a very
interesting topography and the view of the lighthouse
from underwater in stunning.
The Antheor Barges (Les Peniches D’Antheor)
A dive only accessible to relatively experienced
Advanced Open Water Divers and above, The Jean-Suzon and
the Saint-Antoine were two Belgian river barges crewed
by the Germans during the Second World War, shipping
armaments to Marseilles. They were sunk by an English
torpedo just off the coast, in July 1944 in 28 metres of
water. Today the wrecks present a home to many Merou,
Congers, and most noticeably a stunning population of
large Morays. Barracuda are a common siting and Rays are
not unknown.
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