Our final summer vacation day was spent on an island off the coast of France, and it couldn't have been more perfect. Though not large, Île Sainte-Marguerite can hold its own with unspoiled shores, crystal clear water, and breathtakingly peaceful atmosphere.
I am really hoping this post will help folks out there in internet land who are planning a getaway to the South of France. Finding information on Île Sainte-Marguerite {or the Lerin Islands as a whole} is kind of it's own adventure!
The purple text below is for those people who are curious about the "How to get there" parts of our day. If you aren't vacation planning, skip to the next photo.
I'm a weird travel planner. If you read my "Realistic Travel Planning" posts, you already knew this. I have a method to my madness, though it may not make sense to all.
We're an outdoor loving family with beach sand in our bones. I was born in Southern California near the beach and haven't been able to shake that part of my heritage since I moved away. My husband is a merman (of course...a mermaid wouldn't marry a land human unless he were a prince by the name of Eric), so I promised him that our vacation would have a shoreline. Truthfully, I wanted a shore, too.
The shore of Nice is nice, but I wanted an extra special vacation WOW factor for our family, so on Google earth, I scouted the coast. *That's how I found Tossa de Mar for last year's trip to Spain.
Following the shoreline of the Riviera, I noticed a two tiny land masses known as Iles de Lerins.
When I zoomed in, I knew I had found a cool adventure, but getting there was another story!
After a bit of research, I learned that there were only a few ways to reach the islands: By means of a personal boat, or by boat from one of two ports: Cannes and Nice.
Once I had researched even more, I knew out of the two islands {Sainte-Honorat and Sainte-Marguerite} that if we had to choose, we'd prefer to spend the day at Sainte-Marguerite. Thanks to the help of Google, I had found one company that sailed to the island from the Port of Nice.
http://www.trans-cote-azur.co.uk/
The other option was to ride the train from Nice to Cannes, and sail from Cannes. The ride from Cannes by boat is about fifteen minutes, has more companies to choose from, and is MUCH cheaper, but because it would be more fuss in getting there, we opted to leave from the Port of Nice.
The cost for our family (three adults, three children. My teen was an adult ticket) was €210, or at the time it was about $230 USD.
My kids were super excited for their first big boat ride. They've paddled canoes and we've rented small boats for lake days before, but this experience was their first time on a boat in the sea. Honestly, I was excited too. It has been a long time since I've been in open water on a boat!
We took in the sights while a woman with a thick accent explained the coastal randoms. It was on this trip that I saw the world's second largest yacht; well, according to her. I've yet to fact check! It was HUGE, but I missed the photo op.
The ride to Sainte-Marguerite took an hour, but it went by pretty quickly. We arrived to the tiny port of the island at 10am, and with eight hours to explore until call time at 6pm, we set off on foot as quickly as possible.
The island has a ton of trails in the center, but my plan was to walk along the water's edge. Because I did my homework, we brought water shoes, a packed picnic lunch, lots of water, snacks, floaties for the kiddies, snorkel gear, my 'big girl' Nikon D750, and more importantly, our underwater Nikon camera.
Oh yeah, and bottles of sunscreen.
Because it was an island adventure, I don't have much to write about in terms of what we saw.
It was gorgeous, and that's all that really mattered to us!
I'll let the photos explain the majority of our time on Sainte-Marguerite.
I guess I forgot to mention there are small little jellyfish floating about the island's waters! They weren't much of a threat during our trip. They're about the size of a man's palm.It is said that their 'shock' feels like a bee-sting, but we never found out ourselves. Thank goodness.
The above photos are from the side of the island that faces the mainland city of Cannes. The island sits about a half mile from Cannes' shore, and it's not until you are on the 'backside' of Sainte-Marguerite that it becomes a slice of paradise that feels far from everything.
We spent about 30 minutes on the Cannes facing side of the island before wandering around the west towards the other side.
We spent a good hour or so in the area of Pointe du Dragon shown the photos above before we moved on to another place.
Following a shaded trail, we found many footpaths that led to the water. After walking for about five minutes, we settled on a new location, and what was my favorite spot of the day. I didn't get many photos with my 'big girl' Nikon outside of the water because I spent two hours in the water! I did manage to capture a few photos under water, too.
This is also where we ate our picnic lunch, and happens to be the same place I slipped on a rock thus causing me to hit my forehead on another rock. Rocks happen. I was okay, but I had a lovely knot on my head, the diameter of a golf ball, that I brought home as an island souvenir! The best part? It was freeeee.
We had almost made it to the east side of the island at this point. After hanging out in the area between Pointe Carbonel and Pointe de la Convention, we noticed that time had escaped us. It was about 4:30pm, so we packed up and began to walk the island's main trail, heading toward the docking point.
Some randoms about Sainte-Marguerite:
I am really hoping this post will help folks out there in internet land who are planning a getaway to the South of France. Finding information on Île Sainte-Marguerite {or the Lerin Islands as a whole} is kind of it's own adventure!
The purple text below is for those people who are curious about the "How to get there" parts of our day. If you aren't vacation planning, skip to the next photo.
I'm a weird travel planner. If you read my "Realistic Travel Planning" posts, you already knew this. I have a method to my madness, though it may not make sense to all.
We're an outdoor loving family with beach sand in our bones. I was born in Southern California near the beach and haven't been able to shake that part of my heritage since I moved away. My husband is a merman (of course...a mermaid wouldn't marry a land human unless he were a prince by the name of Eric), so I promised him that our vacation would have a shoreline. Truthfully, I wanted a shore, too.
The shore of Nice is nice, but I wanted an extra special vacation WOW factor for our family, so on Google earth, I scouted the coast. *That's how I found Tossa de Mar for last year's trip to Spain.
Following the shoreline of the Riviera, I noticed a two tiny land masses known as Iles de Lerins.
When I zoomed in, I knew I had found a cool adventure, but getting there was another story!
After a bit of research, I learned that there were only a few ways to reach the islands: By means of a personal boat, or by boat from one of two ports: Cannes and Nice.
Once I had researched even more, I knew out of the two islands {Sainte-Honorat and Sainte-Marguerite} that if we had to choose, we'd prefer to spend the day at Sainte-Marguerite. Thanks to the help of Google, I had found one company that sailed to the island from the Port of Nice.
http://www.trans-cote-azur.co.uk/
The other option was to ride the train from Nice to Cannes, and sail from Cannes. The ride from Cannes by boat is about fifteen minutes, has more companies to choose from, and is MUCH cheaper, but because it would be more fuss in getting there, we opted to leave from the Port of Nice.
The cost for our family (three adults, three children. My teen was an adult ticket) was €210, or at the time it was about $230 USD.
 |
| A beautiful sunrise in Côte d'Azur kicked off our day! |
 |
| Getting ready to board our boat |
 |
| City views of Nice's shoreline from the sea. |
 |
| Our first glance of the Ile de Sainte-Marguerite. The building seen on the island is Fort Royal. |
My kids were super excited for their first big boat ride. They've paddled canoes and we've rented small boats for lake days before, but this experience was their first time on a boat in the sea. Honestly, I was excited too. It has been a long time since I've been in open water on a boat!
We took in the sights while a woman with a thick accent explained the coastal randoms. It was on this trip that I saw the world's second largest yacht; well, according to her. I've yet to fact check! It was HUGE, but I missed the photo op.
The ride to Sainte-Marguerite took an hour, but it went by pretty quickly. We arrived to the tiny port of the island at 10am, and with eight hours to explore until call time at 6pm, we set off on foot as quickly as possible.
The island has a ton of trails in the center, but my plan was to walk along the water's edge. Because I did my homework, we brought water shoes, a packed picnic lunch, lots of water, snacks, floaties for the kiddies, snorkel gear, my 'big girl' Nikon D750, and more importantly, our underwater Nikon camera.
Oh yeah, and bottles of sunscreen.
Because it was an island adventure, I don't have much to write about in terms of what we saw.
It was gorgeous, and that's all that really mattered to us!
I'll let the photos explain the majority of our time on Sainte-Marguerite.
 |
| The city of Cannes seen in the background. |
I guess I forgot to mention there are small little jellyfish floating about the island's waters! They weren't much of a threat during our trip. They're about the size of a man's palm.It is said that their 'shock' feels like a bee-sting, but we never found out ourselves. Thank goodness.
The above photos are from the side of the island that faces the mainland city of Cannes. The island sits about a half mile from Cannes' shore, and it's not until you are on the 'backside' of Sainte-Marguerite that it becomes a slice of paradise that feels far from everything.
We spent about 30 minutes on the Cannes facing side of the island before wandering around the west towards the other side.
We spent a good hour or so in the area of Pointe du Dragon shown the photos above before we moved on to another place.
Following a shaded trail, we found many footpaths that led to the water. After walking for about five minutes, we settled on a new location, and what was my favorite spot of the day. I didn't get many photos with my 'big girl' Nikon outside of the water because I spent two hours in the water! I did manage to capture a few photos under water, too.
This is also where we ate our picnic lunch, and happens to be the same place I slipped on a rock thus causing me to hit my forehead on another rock. Rocks happen. I was okay, but I had a lovely knot on my head, the diameter of a golf ball, that I brought home as an island souvenir! The best part? It was freeeee.
 |
| Underwater shot of a cute lil' jellyfish via the Nikon Coolpix AW100 |
We moved on, once again, and explored a few more footpaths away from the main path. It was kind of a "Pick Your Own Adventure" path. We didn't know what we'd find behind trees and brush until we walked through it.
We had almost made it to the east side of the island at this point. After hanging out in the area between Pointe Carbonel and Pointe de la Convention, we noticed that time had escaped us. It was about 4:30pm, so we packed up and began to walk the island's main trail, heading toward the docking point.
 |
| Bastion de la Convention~ Remnants of an old building probably connected to the larger Fort Royal prison located nearby. |
 |
| Yep, the island doesn't have much, but it does have a cemetery. The French soldiers buried within the cemetery gates were losses of the Crimean War. |
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| And if the cemetery isn't creepy enough for you, there is a decent chunk of land outside of the cemetery gates where North African soldiers are buried as a result of World War II. The only marker for each rudimentary grave are rocks. |
We arrived on foot about 45 minutes before our boat docked for boarding, so we grabbed an ice cream from a vendor and swam in the water a little bit more.
We were so tired on the ride back to Nice that I didn't bother to take any more pictures. The island was fun and all, but I could feel the beginnings of a terrible sunburn despite my sunblock efforts! I was more worried about taking a shower and getting a damp swim suit off my body.
We stopped for dinner after arriving in Nice and rode the bus from there to our hotel. Once the sun began to set, we enjoyed the last couple of hours on our final vacation day watching the moon rise over Côte d'Azur. It was a perfect way to end our summer vacation.
Some randoms about Sainte-Marguerite:
- There isn't much on the island. Aside from it's natural beauty and what I've shared above, there is one restaurant, one snack stand, a small youth hostel, and the old Fort Royal prison. There is not a hotel, and we only saw one WC (toilet).
- Fort Royal is now a museum, and if you feel so inclined, you can visit for a nominal fee and see a few old prison cells.
- Speaking of the prison, it is where the real "Man in the Iron Mask" was imprisoned for some time and ultimately where he died in November of 1703. Was he really the king's brother as Alexander Dumas suggested in his novels (or as portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie)? No one knows exactly who he was to this day. It's highly debated, still. His true identity was never revealed, but he is buried in the cemetery on the island under the name "Marchioly"
- The island was once home to a bunch of nuns, long before there was a prison.
- You won't find a single palm tree in this paradise. But you will find pine and eucalyptus trees, everywhere.
For future visitors, I strongly advise you to bring your own water, snacks, lunch, sunblock, beach towels and anything else you may want to tote to make it a wonderful day out. We would have been miserable had we not brought our own drinks and food. We wanted to spend more time in the water than walking back and forth to the only snack bar, or restaurant, on the island anytime we became hungry or thirsty.
There aren't any grocery stores or even souvenir shops should you forget sunblock or anything that is essential.
I would LOVE to return some day! Our trip to Sainte-Marguerite went exactly as planned and I was ready to go back the next day, minus the extreme sunburn I was sporting.
I cannot speak highly enough about this place. We enjoyed every second of our adventure! I definitely feel we saved the best for last.
Next Post: The conclusion of my "Realistic Travel Planning". In that post you will find what went great, what went as expected, what went wrong, our final costs, totals, and my final thoughts on our multi-country summer vacation.
As much as I loved our trip, I am ready to move on to another place.
Heading out of the country very soon to a new city, once again. Yeehaw!
P.S. It's not in France :-) You're welcome.
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