There is a huge range of things to do around Les Basses Beaumettes and St Auban. We are 3km from the village of St Auban. There are several restaurants (although the selection is more limited in winter). The Tracastel is open all year round and serves excellent traditional local food and pizzas, it also does regular theme nights. The campsite has a cheaper menu with an excellent choice of pizzas, toasties etc, The restaurant at the trout ponds is a great place to sit and eat virtually on the water. The Gargotte is open all year round with food ranging from snacks to a full menu. See the Eating Out page.

The Gite Tonic is our local outdoor centre which caters for most local sports including canyoning, horse riding, climbing, via ferratas, rafting, mountain biking (with bikes for hire), ski mountaineering, ice climbing and walks using racquettes (snow shoes). It also has its own forest of adventure and balancoirodrole (huge rope swing), suitable for kids and adults alike - best not to eat before you have a go! (See photo on the left).

Arpille Adventure based in St Auban also offer lots of opportunities to explore the out doors and have mountain bikes for hire.

Please look at the individual activity pages on our website (see menu on the left) for details about each sport and area of interest. Provence beyond's website also gives a lot of information about local sports.

The village park is centred around four pretty lakes, two of which are trout ponds and two of which are duck ponds. At the trout ponds you can either catch your own or have it caught for you. At the duck ponds there is a boules pitch, a children's play area which opened in 2011 and picnic tables.

There is a second children's play area at the St Auban campsite where you can sit and enjoy a coffee whilst the kids burn off a bit of energy.  La Pinatelle is an excellent campsite with pool, restaurant and mobile homes for hire, open from April to October. Please check the opening and closing dates with the owners.

The Clue de St Auban is a very impressive gorge with the Esteron River running through it which links St Auban to the towns and villages further north, it is made up of a series of waterfalls and pools. We are surrounded by clues and gorges - have a look at our gorges page, making St Auban an excellent base for canyoning and rock climbing.

For more information about St Auban have a look at our community website or Provence Web's St Auban site.

The Verdon Gorge is only 40 minutes away and makes a memorable day out whether visited by canoe, on foot, by bike or by car. Vultures have also just been reintroduced to the Gorge.

There are lots of beautiful "perched" villages to visit nearby, have a look at our villages page. We are half an hour from Castellane which has lovely old back streets to wander around, cafes and bars to sit and watch the world go by in, gift shops to buy anything you want with an olive painted on it and a market day on Wednesdays and Saturdays which is well worth a visit. Castellane is a canoeing and rafting centre full of companies ready to take you on whatever aquatic adventure takes your fancy. For more information have a look at the  Castellane Tourist Office website. For information about market days in other local towns and villages have a look at our shopping page.

We are one and a quarter hours from Nice so a visit to the coast is always an option, for more information have a look at the Nice Tourist Office website. There is also a bit about things to do in Nice on our shopping page including a map.  From Les Basses Beaumettes it is also possible to spend a day in Antibes or Cannes.

From Cannes it is well worth going across to either of the Iles de Lérins. The famous Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned in the 17th century on Ile Ste Marguerite (15 minutes by boat). You can visit his prison cell in the Royal Fort which also houses the Musée de la Mer. There are plenty of little coves to swim in, picnic tables and restaurants to linger in with a glass of wine whilst looking out over the Med. There is a bird sanctuary at one end and a foot path all the way round the island which makes for a very pleasant walk. L'Ile de Saint Honorat is smaller and home to 30 Cistercian Monks who live in Abbaye Notre Dame de Lérins. The journey by boat from Cannes to L'ile de Saint Honorat takes about 20 minutes.

If you want to travel slightly further afield when you are here and have some seriously expensive retail opportunities why not have a day out at Monaco. The cactus garden overlooking Monaco is well worth a visit.

This area really has something for everyone, even a religious theme park! Mandarom (which means sacred mountain), can only be described as unique, and includes a bit of everything from a religious point of view. It was founded in 1969, (the monks Star Trek style habits definitely pay homage to 60s fashions), after the founder Hamsah Manarah, ne Gilbert Bourdin, spent a winter in a cave in the Vaucluse, saw the light and decided to set up a temple to all religions united by Aumisme. He chose the hillside above the shores of Lac de Castillon. Some of the statues measure 22m high and represent the Mandarom communities unique interpretation of religion. The tallest statue used to be that of Monsieur Manarah (33m), however the gendarmes decided to send it heavenwards with 15 kilos of dynamite on the 6th of September 2001.

The Lonely Planet Guide book for the area is very good as is their website Lonely Planet Travel Deals. There is a copy of it available in our apartment.

If you're planning on staying in France for a little longer, and need a summer job, check out the woofers website.