Whatever else you might have heard about Toulon, you should be aware that it has a gorgeous nineteenth century opera house — one of the largest opera houses in France outside of Paris. The Toulon Opera aka Théâtre Municipal was inaugurated in 1862. A few years ago it was beautifully Read More …
Before I went to Toulon I booked a guided walking tour through the website of the Toulon tourist office. It was a two-hour tour, in French, called A la découverte de l’Histoire de Toulon (Discovering the History of Toulon). I found the tour pleasant and informative, though perhaps not as Read More …
In 1679, the great military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre, marquis de Vauban (1633-1707), wrote that the harbor of Toulon was “the most beautiful and the most excellent of the Mediterranean Sea, in the opinion of all nations. It is the principal port of the kingdom and the place where the Read More …
In 2001, after the city elections that removed the right-wing Front National from power in Toulon, the new mayor began working with the mayors of eleven nearby towns to form a cooperative regional entity called Toulon Provence Méditerranée (TPM), which is now responsible for culture, sports, tourism and other development projects Read More …
Each year the French Federation of Bicycle Users gives two awards to cities or regions in France. These are the Golden Handlebars (Le Guidon d’Or) for the best local bicycle policies and the Rusty Nail (Le Clou Rouillé) for the worst. In 2009 the city of Toulon was awarded the Read More …
Unlike Victor Hugo, who traveled from Marseille to Toulon by stagecoach in 1839, I came by train. His excuse was that the railroad didn’t even reach Toulon until twenty years after his visit. Actually stagecoaches had become quite comfortable by 1839, because they were equipped with metal springs (a Scottish Read More …
From 1748 to 1873 Toulon was the site of a brutal prison colony called Le Bagne Portuaire de Toulon. An exhibition on this prison colony was shown at the Naval Museum in Toulon (Musée National de la Marine) in 2012/2013. The prisoners, known as bagnards or forçats, wore bright red Read More …
Several companies offer boat tours of the harbor and the military port in Toulon. The one I chose (for no particular reason) was called Bateliers de la Côte d’Azur. The tour was excellent, and I can highly recommend it to anyone who understands French. (I didn’t notice any harbor tours Read More …
This “Liberty Square” in Toulon is a good place to ruminate on the ambiguities of the concept of Liberté, especially since Toulon in former times was best known not as a place of liberty but as the site of a brutal prison colony, the Bagne. The second act of Bizet’s Read More …