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On the south side of the Vieux Port is Marseille’s fort, built in 1680 by Louis XIV to impose authority on the truculent city – its cannons pointed inland. Star-shaped and built on two levels in pink-tinged limestone, it stares across at the much older St Jean fort. Now split in two by the 19th-century port-side boulevard, St Nicholas remains one of the city’s most imposing buildings.

Exhibitions on marine life.

Despite its relaxed beach-bag and flip-flop image, the town of Fréjus has an exceptional double heritage. As Forum Julii, it was the second port of the Roman Empire in the region and retains some of the oldest and most extensive ancient remains in Provence. Particularly notable are the elliptical, 12,000-seater arena and theatre (see Les Arènes de Fréjus). Meanwhile, the town’s medieval bishopric status has left it with an extraordinary group of episcopal buildings. The 12th-century cathedral incorporates a wonderful octagonal baptistry from an earlier, 5th-century church while the 14th-century cloisters have ceilings painted with bracingly lurid events from the Apocalypse (see Notre-Dame-de-Beaulieu, Cucuron). Definitely not to be missed out from any tour of the Var region.

Sometimes known as “son of Châteauneuf-duPape” but the full-bodied wines definitely stand out on their own.

Fashionable folk flock here, and no wonder. The village is perched above the Coulon Valley, and its little houses appear piled on top of one another. In the centre, the chateau oversees the whole with Renaissance dignity.

Second only to the Verdon gorges (see Grand Canyon du Verdon) in dramatic potential, the Nesque gorges run for 20 km (12 miles) between the villages of Villes-sur-Auzon and Monieux. The rocky drop descends more than 300 m (1,000 ft), its sides alternately bare or covered in scrub vegetation. Cut into the cliff, the winding road is definitely not for vertigo sufferers. The Castelleras viewpoint looks onto the 850-m (2,800-ft) Rocher de Cire (Wax Rock – so-called because it is home to millions of bees). This is also the start of a testing walk to the bottom of the gorges, where Chapel St-Michel is dug into the rock.

The deep gorge carved through the mountains by the River Cians is made all the more spectacular by the deep red of the exposed rock. The river descends 1,600 m (5,250 ft) in just 25 km (15 miles) between the eyrie village of Beuil and Touet-sur-Var, where the Cians meets the larger river Var. The canyon is at its narrowest and most spectacular at Pra d’Astier, around midway between the two villages (see Gorges du Cians and Gorges du Dalius).

The most spectacular of the region’s river canyons. Here the River Loup has sliced its way deep into the limestone rock to create a series of waterfalls including the 40-m (130-ft) Cascade de Courmes, churning rapids and deep potholes such as the Saut du Loup (see Gorges du Loup).

From the village square, where the hillside drops into a limestone gorge, you can see all the way down the Loup valley to the coast.

Grasse is a rather unprepossessing town at first sight, but its air is scented by the perfume factories for which it has been famous for more than four centuries. Vast quantities of blossoms are processed here for their essential oils, and a jasmine festival is held each year in August. You can find out how perfume is made at the Musée Internationale de la Parfumerie (see Musée International de la Parfumerie, Grasse).