Toulon

We've passed through Toulon many times over the years, cursing the traffic as the autoroute on one side dumps you into the city center, to wend your way through to find join the autoroute on the other side of town. Finally deciding to ignore no longer one of the largest towns in the South of France, we payed a visit ... and were very pleasantly surprised.

Photo gallery of 13 photos for Toulon Var (83000) Population: 167,619 Altitude: 1 m

Nearby:  | Aix-en-Provence 78 km | Bormes-les-Mimosas 42 km | Brignoles 50 km | Cadière-d'Azur 22 km | Castellet 23 km | Collobrières 44 km | Gap 233 km | Hyères 18 km | Marseille 64 km | Nice 150 km (1h40) | Orange 182 km (1h45) | Val 55 km |

Hotels near Toulon: | Toulon | 18 km Hyeres | 22 km Cadière-d'Azur | 42 km Bormes-les-Mimosas | 50 km Brignoles | 64 km Marseille | 78 km Aix-en-Provence |

(It's often difficult to find one key photo for a town, and we have very many for Toulon, so... here's the fishing boat "Toulon".)

Toulon is a very interesting, international town. It has a pretty and active port area; the naval base; a fascinating "old town" with squares, terrace cafés, trompe l'oeil wall murals; excellent shopping, a modern main-line railway station, and lots of lovely old buildings with wrought-iron balconies.

The veille ville (old town) is large and interesting. It has a combination of Provencal village feeling with some typical seaport-town areas (little "dive" bars and places named after far-away locales). A fair number of oriental fast-food places adds to the exotic touch.

Squares (Places). There are nice squares everywhere in the old town, and it's fun to discover them by wandering randomly through the area, rather than navigating by map. In fact, the large square where we ate didn't even appear on the map (at least I couldn't locate it). And the squares aren't just in the old town. The Place de la Liberté, half way between the old town and the railway station is large and open and has a magnificant fountain on a grand scale. There's also a pleasant, open square outside the ramparts at the Porte d'Italie at the east end of town.

Passages. One area of the old town has many covered passages crossing between the long, parallel streets.

Seafront. The seafront along the port is a walking area lined with terrace cafés, souvenir shops, fising boats, tour boats for excursions of the Rade de Toulon and the islands, yacht harbor and a backdrop of warships of the naval base.

Trompe l'Oeil Murals
Here in Toulon we found the largest and most elaborate trompe l'oeil wall murals we've ever seen. The San Francisco [photo-11] scene is probably the finest that we've seen. The galleon mural at the Place Vatel [photo-10] is actually 3-dimensional, with the front of the old sailing ship extending out from the wall in larger-than-lifesize stone.

Terrace Cafés.
The old town is full of terrace cafés, located in the different squares (places) scattered throughout the area. We stopped in the Brasserie Van Gogh for a morning coffee, beside the Place Fulcran Suchet. The service was swift and friendly, and a unique guestbook inside showed that the bistro has an international reputation for the warm welcome. Among the messages and salutations by visitors from all over the world, including many American service men, the book contained some really fine artwork, some that were done over a period of several days.

The terrace cafés at the Gare SNCF (railway station) at the upper end of town are also large, clean and comfortable. We only mention this because the cafés next to the train stations in many places tend to be the lower end of the scale.

Shopping

Space Mayol is a modern, two-level indoor mall, located at the southeastern corner of the old town (at the eastern end of the port area). We've seen bigger malls, but this isn't bad for the center of a French town. It has a FNAC and a large Carrefour (hypermarché - food and everything else), as well as the typical boutiques.

Old town. Shops galore throughout the old town.

Town Center. Shops along the central streets, more or less between the old town and the railway station.

Suburan Mall. There's a very large shopping complex a few km north of town, out the expressway towards the autoroute in the direction of Hyeres and Nice.

Sundial (Cadran Solaire). There's an old sundial, in excellent condition, at the Porte d'Italie [photo-4].

Favorite Sons
"Raimu" was born in Toulon. We found two statues of him, including the nice bronze statue at the Place Victor Huge in front of the Opera; but not at the Place Raimu.

Car Rental

Avis Location de Voitures

Location: Gare SNCF, pl Europe

Tel: 0494 891 438; Fax: 04 94 89 07 17

Budget France

Location: imm Bon Abri, 125 av Colonel Picot

Tel: 0494 208 585; Fax: 04 94 20 90 58

Europcar Locafi

Location: 1 rue Sylvain

Tel: 0494 410 907; Fax: 04 94 46 65 12

Hertz France

Location: Cuzin

Fax: 04 94 42 45 39

JDL Durand Location

Location: 8 cité Montéty

Tel: 0494 894 643; Fax: 04 94 89 39 94

Locafi B.H.L

Location: Le Pélican, quart La Rode

Tel: 0498 009 000

Rent A Car

Location: 560 av Mar Foch

Tel: 0494 892 150; Fax: 04 94 89 21 64

Accueil Taxi Confort

Location: Le San Francisco, 105 bd Eugène Pelletan

Tel: 0494 411 111

TAXI

Allo Gie Taxi Radio

Location: 12 place Armand Valle

Tel: 0494 935 151; Fax: 04 94 24 89 60

TAXI

Voitures Azur

Location: 102 rue Genévriers 83100

Tel: 0494 611 010

TAXI

Motard Service

Location: 282 bd Léon Bourgeois

Tel: 0494 039 404; Fax: 04 94 03 94 23

Office de Tourisme

Tel : 0494 18 53 00; Fax: 04 94 18 53 09

Web: www.toulon.com

The Office de Tourisme is nicely decorated inside, with art exhibits and an information kiosk with a local version of their web.
The Mairie (town hall) has a separate Tourist Office, with information and maps, and a photo exhibit of Toulonaise sights and objects. They are located at the Hotel de Ville on the Ave de la République, the street that parallels the seafront.

Transportation Toulon

Evasion Provence Service

Location: BP 297 ZI Toulon Est -; 83078 Toulon Cedex 9

Tel: 0494 216 370; Fax: 0494 216 372

Web: www.evasion-provence-service.fr

Transport Routier de Voyageurs - from 1 person up; car, van, limousine, minibus, coach

Bus

Department 83, Var Buses

See Beyond's Bus Schedules Page 16: Var Department for downloading Var bus-lines map [Plan du Reseau] and bus-line schedules [Horaires] (link for PDF files).

Road
The A51 autoroute goes northeast from the city center, joining the A8 (Aix-Cannes) autoroute 50 km from Toulon. Toulon to Cannes is about 1h15.

From the west side of town, the A50 autoroute goes past Bando and Cassis to Aubagne; one branch goes west into Marseille; the other branch continues north to the A8 and on to Aix-en-Provence (and points beyond).

A car rental center, with several major brands, is located at the railway station (gare SNCF).

Sports

Cycling

Motard Service

Location: 282 bd Léon Bourgeois

Tel: 0494 039 404; Fax: 04 94 03 94 23

Diving

E.E.P.M

Location: ZAE Malbousquet, av Aristide Briand

Tel: 0494 913 020

Hiking

Maps:

IGN (1/25,000) #3346 OT "Toulon, Le Gro Cerveau, Mont Faron"

Lodging - Hotels

www.provencebeyond.com (Beyond the French Riviera) ® Copyright 1995-2011, Russ Collins - All Rights Reserved.