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33-618: Agay is a village district of Saint-Raphaël in the south-east of France in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Agay is located directly on the coast of the Côte d'Azur (French riviera). Agay is 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) east of Saint-Raphaël and 35 kilometres (22 mi) west of Cannes . Due to its location on the Mediterranean, it is a popular tourist destination, but

66-557: A majority in the second round. In the 2022 French presidential election , Le Pen of the National Rally (formerly National Front) won a majority in Var in both rounds. The Departmental Council of Var comprises 46 seats. In the 2021 departmental election , 26 seats were won by The Republicans (LR), 13 by miscellaneous right candidates, 3 by the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), 2 by

99-500: A timely fire, the Pierre & Vacances group bought 210 hectares38 of previously undevelopable land in the western part of the bay to build its largest holiday village, called ‘Cap Esterel’, with 1,694 homes and a capacity of 8,000 holidaymakers. At the same time, a large number of luxury villas were gradually taking over the lower hills of the bay, some in private developments. Var department The Var department takes its name from

132-568: Is € 610 million per year, of which 45% is sales of wines and 42% of horticultural products. In 2008 the Var department received approximately €15 million in farm subsidies under the EU Common Agriculture Policy, an average of about €6,000 per recipient farm. This compares with an average across France as a whole of over €18,000 per farm. Var (river) The Var ( French: [vaʁ] , Occitan: [ˈbaɾ] ; Italian : Varo ; Latin : Varus )

165-615: Is a river located in the southeast of France . It is 114 km (71 mi) long. Its drainage basin is 2,812 km (1,086 sq mi). The Var flows through the Alpes-Maritimes département for most of its length, with a short (~15 km or ~9 mi) stretch in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département. It is a unique case in France of a river not flowing in the département named after it (see Var ). Until

198-559: Is derived from public works. 800 km or 13% of the total area is dedicated to agriculture, on which 40,000 people (14% of the Var working population) depend for their livelihoods. The department also has 10 km of horticultural land (of which 4 km are covered). Var is France's largest grower of cut flowers , producing some 500 million stems a year. Livestock farming is mainly sheep (50,000) and goats (4,200). Vines and viticultural related activities account for 345 km of farmland. The 450 domaines or coopératives and

231-526: Is in the foothills of the French Alps and largely mountainous. Major mountains include: The plateau of Canjuers (French: Plan de Canjuers ) in the northeast of Var gradually rises from 500 to 1,000 metres. In the south and west there are several plateaus, such as the plateau of Siou Blanc to the north of Toulon, which rise from 400 to 700 metres in altitude. The department of Var has a Mediterranean climate , slightly warmer, drier and sunnier than Nice and

264-409: Is less visited than Saint-Tropez and Nice, which are in the immediate vicinity. Agay is a natural harbour, i.e., a bay wider than its opening to the sea, allowing ships to anchor calmly. The bay of Agay is almost circular (in two juxtaposed circles), facing south, and protected from the wind by the hills that surround it, culminating rapidly at 287 metres (942 ft) (Rastel d'Agay). The bay lies at

297-1154: The Col de la Cayolle (2,326 m/7,631 ft) in the Maritime Alps and flows generally southeast to its outflow into the Mediterranean Sea between Nice and Saint-Laurent-du-Var . Its main tributaries are the Cians , the Tinée , the Vésubie , the Coulomp , the Estéron , the Tuébi , the Chalvagne , the Barlatte , the Bourdous and the Roudoule . The Var flows through the following départements and towns: Bibliography This Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur geography article

330-621: The Fauvist movement. Summer tourism made its debut in the inter-war years with the opening of the Hôtel de la Baumette, a luxurious Art Nouveau building dominating the eastern tip of the town, and rapidly becoming a favourite with artists, intellectuals, aristocrats and other stars. Famous people have stayed in Agay, including Gaston Doumergue , Guy de Maupassant and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , who married Consuelo Suncin de Sandoval at Château d'Agay in 1932, in

363-536: The National Rally (RN) and 2 by miscellaneous centre candidates. Var currently has no left-wing departmental councillors. Since 2022, La Garde Mayor Jean-Louis Masson (LR) has been President of the Departmental Council of Var. His governing majority comprises all councillors except the two elected under the National Rally banner, who form the opposition. In the 2024 legislative election , Var elected

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396-523: The 1960s about 100,000 French citizens were repatriated from Algeria following the Algerian War of Independence and settled in the Var department. In 2014 , Fréjus Mayor David Rachline became the first Senator from Var elected under the National Front (later National Rally) banner; alongside Stéphane Ravier from neighbouring Bouches-du-Rhône , the two became the first National Front members of

429-458: The 4 AOCs ( appellation d'origine contrôlée ) produce 150 million litres of wine a year. Var leads the world in the production of rose wine. Other important agricultural products include olives (cultivated on 42 km of land—a quarter of all French olive groves—and processed in 40 mills), figs (the Var produces 80% of France's figs), and honey (800 tonnes per year). There are also 9 km of market gardens. Agricultural turnover in Var

462-711: The Alpes-Maritimes, but is also less sheltered from the wind. Toulon has an average of 2899.3 hours of sunshine each year. The average maximum daily temperature in August is 29.1 °C, and the average daily minimum temperature in January is 5.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 665 mm. Winds exceeding 16 m/s (57.6 km/h) blow an average of 116 days per year in Toulon, compared with 77 days per year at Fréjus further east. Population development since 1801: In 2019,

495-518: The Baumette, the location of today's lighthouse, and the other at Le Dramont. After the Revolution, the garrisons stationed in the castle there were withdrawn and Agay was incorporated into Saint-Raphaël. The 19th century saw the arrival of a customs post, a lighthouse and, above all, the railway line in 1864. This paved the way for porphyry quarrying at Dramont, and soon for the development of tourism. It

528-468: The Mediterranean coast in particular, but also inland to the Verdon River Canyon and hilltop villages and vineyards. Popular tourist attractions in Var include: The construction industry employs 28,000 workers in the Var of which 4,000 work alone and 4,500 companies employ the remaining 24,000 salaried workers. Industry generates an annual turnover of €2.5 billion. Of this, €500 million

561-558: The Romans founded a harbour (Portus Agathonis). In the 10th century, the Count of Provence, William the Liberator, donated Agay to Bishop Riculphe of Fréjus . In 1235, Agay, which was no longer inhabited due to the numerous Saracen raids, passed to Raymond Beranger IV. Under Cardinal Richelieu , the place called Agay from this time onwards was equipped with fortifications, including two towers. One at

594-526: The Senate under the Fifth Republic . The Var department has a surface area of 6,032 km . It had 420 km of coastline, including the offshore islands. 56% of its surface area is covered with forest. Its geological formations are divided into two regions; one composed of limestone to the northwest of a line between Toulon and Draguignan and of crystalline rock ( quartz ) to the southeast. The department

627-434: The activity of architects such as Pierre Aublé: long before the sea bathing craze, Agay was already attracting wealthy tourists from all over France to admire its exceptional setting and ideal climate. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the intensity of the primary colours that dominate the landscape (red, green, blue) attracted painters, particularly a group of post-impressionists who from 1905 onwards went on to form

660-405: The aristocracy to a summer seaside resort for the middle classes. A large number of holiday homes were built here, even though Agay, a listed site where building is strictly regulated, was spared the large concrete developments that have disfigured much of the coast. This has also enabled the bay to retain some control over its summer population, and therefore its quality of life. In 1990, following

693-614: The beginning of the 19th century, the river had no bridges; it was the border between France and the County of Nice , then part of Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia . The river name is attested in Latin as Vārus and in Ancient Greek as Ouãros (Οὐᾶρος). It stems from the Indo-European root * uōr - (earlier *uer- ), meaning 'water, river' (cf. Sanskrit vār , Old Norse vari ). The Var rises near

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726-622: The castle, both by the Germans and by the bombing raids at the end of 1943 in preparation for the Provence landings) and largely disfigured by numerous bunkers (some of which are still visible). Reconstruction was rapid, however, benefiting from the boom in the entire region of the French Riviera . From the 1960s onwards, Agay followed the general trend of the Côte d'Azur and went from being a winter resort for

759-409: The defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo the department was occupied by Austrian troops until November 1818. In 1854 the first railroad reached Toulon. With the creation of the new department of Alpes-Maritimes in 1860 and following the annexation by France of Nice, the eastern part of the department, corresponding to the arrondissement of Grasse , was moved to the new department. This move also shifted

792-646: The following representatives to the National Assembly : In the 2020 Senate election , Jean Bacci, Michel Bonnus, Françoise Dumont and André Guiol were elected from Var. All sit with the Senate Republicans group , except Guiol who sits with the European Democratic and Social Rally group . The principal industry of Var is tourism, thanks largely to the big summer influx of tourists to the South of France and

825-538: The heart of the massif de l'Esterel , a volcanic mountain range of low altitude but steep slopes, criss-crossed by a major network of faults running in two perpendicular directions, north–south and west–east. The roots of Agay are said to go back to a harbour of the Oxybinians , a Celtic-Ligurian tribe. The harbour called Agathon ' good ' offered the Greeks of Massilia protection and trading opportunities. Around 57 BC,

858-536: The home of his friend and brother-in-law Pierre d'Agay. Novelist Albert Cohen also set much of the plot of his famous novel Belle du Seigneur in Agay. During the Second World War, the Germans destroyed the castle and burnt the countryside around the Estérel. The Anthéor viaduct was targeted and most of the houses and the chapel were destroyed. Agay emerged from the Second World War largely destroyed (particularly

891-578: The main port of the French Navy , for its seaside resorts, the most famous of which is Saint-Tropez , for some fine examples of Romanesque and other medieval architecture, such as Le Thoronet Abbey and the Fréjus Cathedral , for its wines, particularly the wines of Bandol , as well as for its motorsport race track Circuit Paul Ricard , located in Le Castellet . The department of Var was created at

924-455: The population of Var was 1,076,711, of whom 51% live in the agglomeration ( urban unit ) of Toulon , the prefecture and most populous commune. As of 2019, there are nine communes with more than 20,000 inhabitants: In the 2017 French presidential election , Marine Le Pen of the National Front won a majority of the vote in Var in the first round, with François Fillon of The Republicans placing second. Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! won

957-630: The region, but weakened the agricultural and food industries. In 1942 the German Army moved from Occupied France into the zone libre , which included the Var department. The French Fleet was sabotaged in Toulon Harbour to keep it from falling into German hands. The Maquis Vallier , a group of maquis resistance fighters, was active. On 15 August 1944 American and Free French forces land at Saint-Tropez , Sainte-Maxime and Saint-Raphaël . The Free French fleet arrived at Toulon on 13 September. In

990-405: The river Var , which flowed along its eastern boundary, until the boundary was moved in 1860 and the department is no longer associated with the river. Toulon is Var's largest city and administrative capital, known as the prefecture . Other important towns in Var include Fréjus , Saint-Raphaël , Draguignan , Brignoles , Hyères and La Seyne-sur-Mer . Var is known for the harbour of Toulon,

1023-659: The river Var, which had given the department its name, to the new department. In 1884 a cholera epidemic struck Toulon. The leader of the fight against the epidemic was Georges Clemenceau , a doctor and a member of the National Assembly for the Seine department. He was later elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies for the Var department from 1888 to 1893 and Senator from 1902 to 1920, during which time he also served as Prime Minister of France . The First World War (1914–1918) stimulated growth in shipyards and military industries in

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1056-580: The time of the French Revolution , on 4 March 1790, from a portion of the former royal province of Provence . Its capital was originally Toulon , but this was moved to Grasse in 1793 to punish the Toulonnais for yielding the town to the British in 1793. Subsequently, the capital was moved to Brignoles in 1795, then to Draguignan in 1797. It was not returned to Toulon until 1974. In 1815, following

1089-580: Was in the 1880s that Saint-Raphaël became a popular destination for aristocratic tourists, thanks to the arrival of the train in 1863, which enabled the construction of the basilica and a number of luxury buildings, initially confined to the main town before expanding towards Boulouris (where the ‘Moorish Villa’ was built in 1881). Hotels and sumptuous villas in the Belle Époque and Art Nouveau styles were built in Agay as well as in Anthéor, le Dramont and Boulouris, boosting

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