Step away from the beach: Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer's old town on foot
Most visitors to Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer head straight for the coast - the long sandy beach at Les Lecques, the quiet coves, the port at La Madrague. But the historic town centre, set slightly inland on higher ground, is worth an hour or two of anyone's time. The streets are shaded, the pace is slow, and the square at the heart of it contains one of the more unexpected sights in the Var. Here is how to make the most of it on foot.
Where to start
The natural starting point is Place Portalis, the main square of the old town. Café and restaurant owners offer a warm welcome under the plane trees here, and it is a good place to orientate yourself before you begin. The square is named after Jean-Étienne-Marie Portalis, one of the most significant legal minds of the Napoleonic era. Born on 1 April 1746, Portalis was one of the chief draftsmen of the Napoleonic Code, which serves as the foundational framework of the French legal system. He was a native of Le Beausset, a village just a few kilometres to the north - close enough for the people of Saint-Cyr to feel a justified sense of local pride in the association.
The golden Statue of Liberty
Before you have even had time to finish your coffee, something in the square will catch your eye. Standing at the centre of Place Portalis is a gilded Statue of Liberty - cast entirely in iron, finely gilded, and signed on its base by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, the same sculptor who made the original in New York. It is one of only four exact replicas in France, and it stands 2.50 metres tall - which, as it happens, is precisely the length of the index finger of the New York version. The reason it ended up here is a good story. In 1913, a wealthy local landowner named Anatole Ducros donated it to the town to mark the arrival of Saint-Cyr's first public water supply. This was not a vanity project or a decorative whim, it was a community celebrating something that genuinely changed daily life. The fact that Bartholdi signed the pedestal himself is what lifts it from curiosity to genuine artefact. Crouch down and look for the signature before you move on.
Église Saint-Cyr-et-Sainte-Julitte
Turn around from the statue and the church is right behind you. The building looks relatively modern - and by Provençal standards, it is - but the site itself has been a place of worship for far longer than the stonework suggests. The earliest written record of a chapel here dates to 1361, when a local will left an annual gift of oil to a chapel at Saint-Cyr, served at that time by a hermit. The current church took shape across the second half of the 19th century: the first stone was laid on 22 December 1857, construction finished exactly seven years later on 22 December 1864, and the church was formally consecrated in 1880. The bell tower is even older, dating from 1782, and inside there is a bell from 1784 - one of the few elements that survived the rebuild and connects the building to what came before. It is a working parish church, not a heritage site, and the atmosphere inside is quiet and unhurried. If the doors are open, it is worth a few minutes.
The Sunday market
If you can time your visit for a Sunday morning, do. The weekly market takes place within footsteps of Place Portalis, running from 8am to 1pm, and with over 140 merchants it is a proper event rather than a handful of stalls. Expect vegetables pulled that morning, local olives and cheese, Provençal textiles, and wine from the surrounding Bandol vineyards. In summer it fills up fast, arriving early is not just good advice, it is the difference between a leisurely browse and a slow shuffle through a crowd.
Wandering the streets
There is no map required for the old town, and no single route worth prescribing. The streets are narrow, shaded and genuinely pleasant to get slightly lost in - stone houses, the odd fountain, a traditional shop or two, and the kind of quiet that the coast rarely offers in summer. Head uphill from Place Portalis to find the older residential streets, where the pace drops further and the views open out. Then loop back down when you are ready, and settle in for that second coffee or an early glass of wine under the plane trees.
Before you leave: a note on the town's name
The name Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer is relatively recent in the long span of this place's history. The settlement goes back around 26 centuries - founded by the Greeks, who called it Taurois, and later absorbed into the Roman world as Tauroentum during the Pax Romana. The Romans left their mark here in some depth, and if the walk has put you in the mood for more history, the Musée de Tauroentum at Les Lecques is a short drive away. Built directly on the foundations of a first-century Roman villa, it holds mosaics, amphorae and other finds from the site - a natural continuation of the morning rather than a detour from it.
The beach will still be there when you get back. In the meantime, Place Portalis is waiting, coffee, plane trees, a gilded Statue of Liberty, and a square full of reasons to slow down.
À bientôt
