Port Grimaud, the Provencal Venice of the South of France
We call it “Provençal Venice”. Port Grimaud is one of the jewels of the South of France. Formerly made up of simple swamps, this place was only used for agricultural or hunting activities. It was not until 1960 that Port Grimaud began to be the subject of interest for tourist development.
The construction of Port Grimaud
Port Grimaud was built in the 1960s by François Spoerry, an Alsatian architect. The inhabitants of Port Grimaud still call him “the architect”. When François Spoerry arrived in the region for the first time, he quickly noticed that the terrain was quite marshy. Then followed the idea of creating a lake city, that is to say a city near a lake. The construction of Port Grimaud then begins and finally ends in the 2000s. Around 100 houses will be built per year.
Port Grimaud, a special city
The particularity of the place is that the city is private and therefore very inaccessible to tourists. Most residents access it by boat through the city’s multiple canals. You can therefore easily access it by boat, to observe the colorful facades as well as the small houses. The particularity of the houses in Port Grimaud is that they each have an assigned “parking” space for their boats. The municipality has also set up “boat buses” to allow residents who do not own boats to be able to get around despite everything. The city is registered with the “20th century Heritage label”, it is a very ecological and environmentally friendly city.
Places not to miss during your vacation
The tomb of the architect François Spoerry rests in a vault in the church of Saint-François d’Assise. It is entirely open to the public and offers a panoramic view from the roof, particularly over Sainte Maxime and Saint Tropez. During your boat trip you will also be able to see the architect’s large house. We also advise you to go to the small perched village of Ramatuelle which is only about fifteen minutes from Grimaud. The road to get there is magnificent in terms of landscapes. The village is full of many small shops and you can see the Bay of Pampelonne in the distance. It is pleasant to walk there without meeting many tourists even in summer.
