Brignoles

Introduction

Brignoles, located in the Var county of the French region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, is a large market town, known for peaches, olives and honey. It is located within the arrondissment with the same name and has about 15,000 inhabitants.
A Medieval old town is a short walk up the hill from the town center. It was the residence of the Counts of Provence during medieval times. From the mid 19th century until the mid 20th century, the region was a major aluminium and bauxite mining center. It has since grown to specialise in light industry, wine and agriculture.

The rugged hills of the Brignoles area make excellent terrain for walking holidays. It offers fantastic walks, many of which pass through the old bauxite mining areas of Brignoles, or through the pre-historic dolmen sites scattered throughout the area. Brignoles is also famous for rock climbing. The rock climbing centres of Les Calanques are famous worldwide, drawing climbers throughout the year and from all parts of Europe. There are also schools for rock climbing lessons and a good selection of climbs are also available for the less experienced to sharpen their climbing techniques.

There are also some wonderful lakes in the Brignoles area, which are a perfect place to relax and swim if the beaches of the Cote d’Azur seem too far. Water sports including sailing, fishing and windsurfing can all be enjoyed in the region.

For more information about Brignoles and the vicinity check the official Brignoles tourist website (of course in French only).

Sights and Activities

• Relax at the cafés on Place Caramy
• The The Place des Comptes de Provence housed the first Palace of the Counts of Provence.
• The Saint-Sauveur Church includes a 12th century Romanesque doorway.
• Abbaye de la Celle, 2 kilometers out of town, now a hotel, was originally a 13th century Benedictine convent.
• Chapel Notre-Dame d'Espérance is about a kilometer out of town.
• The Brignolais Region Museum (Musée du pays Brignolais), details the history of the Brignoles area. Its main drawcard is the Bayole tombstone dating back to the 2nd century. It is located at the Place des Comtes de Provence in the Chateau des Comptes de Provence. Entry is €10.

Weather

The Brignoles area is quite sunny with an average of around 3000 hours of sunshine in a year. It is quite warm during the months of June, July and August with temperatures reaching the low 30s (Celsius) quite often and nights are pleasantly warm. Even during the peak winter season, temperatures rarely fall below 10 °C during the day. Frost is not unheard of though and even the rare flock of snow is possible during colder days.

Events and Festivals

• Foire de Brignoles is an annual wine festival held in the beginning of April.
• The Brignoles Jazz Festival is held in August
• The Medieval Festival is held in August
• The Plum Festival takes place in September

Getting There

By Plane

The closest airport is the Toulon Hyeres (TLN) international airport, located south on the coast. Several (lowcost) airlines serve Toulon, including Transavia from Rotterdam, Jetairfly from Brussels, Brest and Ajaccio, Air France from Paris-Orly and Ryanair from Stockholm, London-Stansted and Bristol.

A little further away, Marseille Provence Airport (MRS) is one of the busiest airports in all of France with almost 7 million passengers in 2007 and has much more choice regarding (long distance) flights. The airport has direct service to almost every major city in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Currently the only flight to North America is to Montreal.

Other options with some choice of lowcostairlines are Avignon and Nice airports, though further away.

By Train

Le Train du Centre Var is a tourist train between Carnoules and Brignoles.
The closest TGV (Highspeed) train stations are in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, while Les Arcs train station for coastal/local trains is 30 minutes away.

By Car

Brignoles is located just south of the main highway, the A8 between Aix-en-Provence and Nice.

Keep Connected

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Post

La Poste in France is also referred to as the PTT (short for postes, télégraphes et téléphones). The mailboxes are painted bright yellow and often there is a slot for local city mail and another slot for "outside mail". Normally there is a queue in the post office, but most of the post offices have the self service machine installed which is quite easy to operate. Nowadays many of the tabac and even some of the souvenir shops also sell postage stamps. Normally an overseas postcard costs almost as much as sending a letter.
Post offices are generally open from 8:00am to 7:00pm Monday through Friday, and 8:00am to noon on Saturdays. Apart from the basic job of mailing letters, most of the post offices do some banking activities also and some even have photocopy machines and cyber cafes for internet access.