French Town With Pastel Buildings Confused for Film Set, Local Ice Cream Indulged
KEY POINTS
- •Rachel Hosie moved to the Côte d'Azur in 2025 and discovered Sanary-sur-Mer, a small port town between Marseille and Toulon.
- •With fewer than 20,000 residents, the town preserves an authentic French atmosphere unlike the more crowded Riviera hotspots.
- •Visitors can rent smaller boats in a quiet harbor filled with yachts and enjoy pastel-colored buildings and clean public toilets.
- •Sanary-sur-Mer features historical sites like the retro Cinéma A.b.c. and offers convenient stair access for swimming in the Mediterranean.
Rachel Hosie, freshly relocated to the Côte d'Azur in 2025, has fallen head over heels for Sanary-sur-Mer, the French Riviera’s under-20,000 population port town that somehow manages to be charming without bursting with the usual English screamers. Nestled between Marseille and Toulon, Hosie praises its authentically French vibe where only the elusive French language infiltrates the soundscape, unlike the tourist-packed horrors of Antibes and Saint-Tropez. She dotes on yachts bobbing quietly, $0.00 public toilets that are actually decent, and pastel-colored boutiques where she splurged on linen trousers and a plant pot. Bonus: a 1930s retro pastel cinema and stairways straight into the water, thus sparing her from deserting sand on her shoes. Who knew the Riviera still had breathing room—or impeccable cleanliness?
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Sanary-sur-Mer: where the French retreat and tourists hide, boasting clean bathrooms and enough pastel charm to shame the entire French Riviera's glitterati.
Forget Cannes and Saint-Tropez packed with selfie-sticks; Sanary-sur-Mer quietly serves authentic baguette ambiance minus the chaos.
Only French spoken, free toilets that work, and pastel buildings—somewhere between fantasy and French municipal efficiency.
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 11/29/2025 | Author: Rachel Hosie
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