(3) Sunrise on the Giens Peninsula.
I did not want to do exactly the same thing on this early morning as I had done the evening before, but some overlap was unavoidable. I did manage to go to the extreme eastern end of the peninsula, a place called Cap de l’Esterel (and fenced off as a dangerous defense area –with remnants of defensive structures from World War II and before).
From that cape I moved northward until I had a good view of the mainland, looking at Hyeres nearby (straight north) and toward Toulon when looking in a more westerly direction.
I love trees and typically do not attempt to name them since giving something a name does not mean you understand it at all. I think that Aleppo pine trees are what dominate the area, and they have a rather characteristic shape. Stone pines may also be here, with their umbrella-like canopies (making them also known as Umbrella pines), but I am not sure I saw any. There also were large stands of rather scrubby oaks, maybe Holmes oaks (an evergreen oak) or Kermes oaks (I was trying to figure this out from the Wikipedia descriptions, but am no expert). So the trees you will see in these photos are oaks and pines, OK?
I started before the sun came up to see how it would look toward the southeast of the peninsula:
At water level the colors of the sky were well-reflected:
Note the trees, and one tree in particular, in this series of pictures, once the sun is above the horizon it reflected nicely in the tree's upper reaches:
Enough time in one spot, now that the sun is up we are going east, then north:
Once at the end of this path, looking back to where we just came from shows the day's new light bathing the rocks we had just stood on:
The end of this piece of land, the Cap de l'Esterel, was out of reach because of a fence, but we got close looking at some of the small isolated beaches along that cape:
The path to the northern shore of this arm of the peninsula allowed a nice look at the local brush type vegetation:
As we move forward with a new sun shining around us, we can see the area around Hyeres,
Behind us the sun is still rising, again, over a little ridge:
As the sun came up over this ridge, it illuminated the trees we were walking past:
Stepping all the way to the north shore allows a look toward the west at a nice bay with many pine trees:
Looking north from here again gave views of Hyeres,
And now it is time to go to our meeting!
Links to other 'Septober' trip pages
(Note that I took no photos of the city where my second meeting took place, Toulon):
(4) A visit to the north rim of France's Grand Canyon, in Provence.
(5) A visit to the south rim of Provence's Grand Canyon.
(6) The ITER site near Cadarache.
(1) Crossing the Alps on the way from Munich (Munchen) to Marseille.
(2) Sunset on the Giens Peninsula where my first set of meetings took place.
Universal links:
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