The Calanque de Santa Lucia is a small cove of red rock at the eastern edge of Saint-Raphaël, where the Estérel corniche begins. Little sand, an entry into the water over the rocks, water clear and deep: this is the swim for people escaping the big beaches of Fréjus, provided you bring reef shoes.
Saint-Raphaël stretches for kilometres of sandy beach. Then, past the Santa Lucia marina, the road starts to climb, the red rock of the Estérel plunges into the sea, and the coast becomes a succession of headlands and coves as far as Agay. The Calanque de Santa Lucia is the first of them, the closest to town, and yet you will miss it if you are not looking.
You go down from the corniche by a short, steep path between the pines. At the bottom, an inlet closed off by two spurs of red rock, a floor of pebbles and coarse sand, and water that shifts from turquoise to deep blue within a few metres. The red porphyry underwater gives the depths colours that sand never produces, and a mask quickly becomes essential.
This is not a beach. No fine sand for towels, no lifeguard, no shower, no restaurant. You lay your towel on flat rocks, walk into the water over stone, and swim straight away because the bottom drops fast. Reef shoes are not a comfort but a necessity: sea urchins are real and the rock is sharp.
That is exactly what preserves it. The cove is small, twenty people fill it, and its relative discomfort keeps away anyone looking for a beach. It suits swimmers, snorkellers and couples; less so families with young children.
Facing south, the cove takes the sun all day and becomes very hot in August. Before ten in the morning you often have it to yourself. The water stays calm as long as the easterly does not get up; in a mistral, by contrast, the cove is sheltered, and it is one of the few places on this coast where you can swim in peace on a windy day.
Late in the season, until mid-October, the water is still warm and the cove deserted.
The cove is a starting point. The coastal path follows the shore eastwards, cove after cove, as far as the Dramont headland and beyond. You can walk for an hour, swim in the next inlet, and come back. That is the Corniche d'Or on foot, and the truest way to discover it.
This guide is part of the address book of a private estate in Puget-sur-Argens, 22 minutes away, available for weddings and family stays. It is not open to visitors.
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