Saint Honorat an island to visit on the Cote d’Azur in France, for a fabulous day out on a French Riviera holiday.
The island of Saint Honorat is a small, picturesque island which forms part of the Lerins islands grouping near Cannes. Inhabited for many years by monks who maintain a vow of silence and live to this day in the beautiful Abbey.
There is a magnificent abandoned fort on the northernmost point of the island from which there are breathtaking views of the Mediterranean sea, the island, the Abbey, the mainland and in particular the Esterel coastal mountains.
You can visit both the Abbey and the fort free of charge and there are delightful wooded pathways around the island along with numerous shaded spots for picnics. Take your snorkel and goggles and enjoy some of the best shallow diving in the area, though be warned the rocks are sharp and you may well want protective shoes (you can buy specially adapted ones quite cheaply in Decathlon stores which incidentally are fantastic for all sorts of outdoor gear and are located in Grasse, Mandelieu, Antibes and many towns in France).
To get to Saint Honorat you need to take a ferry (which takes about forty minutes) from the port at Cannes (located at the top end of the port). You are strongly advised to get the first ferry which goes around 09.00. The advantage of doing this is that you can still find a free parking space along the Cannes beachfront (east of the port towards Cannes le Bocca) and when you get to the island hardly anyone is there. Only the monks live on the island (they produce wine, liqueurs, honey and religious objects) so as the day goes on the island fills up with visitors from the ferries and private boats.
We got that first boat and found ourselves alone wondering around the superb fort and gazing at the islands coast path with not a soul on it, found a gorgeous shaded spot on the rocks by the sea and felt like we were in paradise. This was the first week of September, back on the mainland the beaches of Cannes were packed. For more ferry information see cannes-ilesdelerins.com
For more photographs of the island see our Saint Honorat facebook album page.
Sainte Marguerite is the larger of the Lerins islands which can also be visited by ferry from Cannes.
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