GRIMAUD, halfway between La Garde-Freinet and the Golfe de St-Tropez, is a film set of a village perché. The cone of houses enclosing the eleventh-century church and culminating in the ruins of a medieval castle appears as a single, perfectly unified entity, decorated by its trees and flowers. The most vaunted street in this ensemble is the arcaded rue des Templiers, which leads up to the pure Romanesque Église de St-Michel and a house of the Knights Templar, while the view from the castle ruins is superb. There's a small tourist office at 1 bd des Aliziers just off the main road passing the village (daily: May–June & Sept 9am–12.30pm & 2.30–6.30pm; July & Aug 9am–12.30pm & 3–7pm; Oct–April 9am–12.30pm & 2–6pm; tel 04.94.43.26.98, www.grimaud-provence.com). If you're stopping to eat, great-value midday menus from €20 are offered at Le Coteau Fleuri, place des Pénitents (tel 04.94.43.20.17, [email protected]; closed Tues except July & Aug), which also has a few rooms (€85–100).
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