Hyères and the Îles d’Or are the quietest good cruising on the French Mediterranean. Porquerolles, Port-Cros and Le Levant lie a few miles offshore, Port-Cros is a national park and Porquerolles is largely owned by the state, so the islands have been spared the development that covered the coast east of here. The anchorages are consequently as they were fifty years ago.

Port Saint-Pierre at Hyères is the mainland base, with Port de Bormes and Le Lavandou a little further east under the Massif des Maures and Brégançon — the fort on the point is the French president’s summer residence, which tells you something about how discreet this coast is. Our own van reaches all of it next day from Antibes.

The islands themselves have no supply worth the name, which is exactly the point of them and exactly the problem. A yacht going out to anchor off Porquerolles for a week needs to leave the mainland full, and we would rather size a Hyères delivery for the whole stay than be asked to solve a shortage by tender on day four.

Porquerolles also makes serious wine, which surprises people. The island has several estates — the Côtes de Provence vineyards there are among the most distinctive in the appellation, grown on sand within sight of the sea — and a bottle from the island, drunk at anchor off it, is the kind of thing a charter is actually for. Bandol is half an hour west for the reds.