southern france

One of my favorite beach towns is Ste. Maxime's. It is west of Nice and fairly close to Canne, but has a different feel. It has a nice beach, great restaurants as well as a nice market and good shopping. It is easy to get around as well as close to lots of places for day trips if you have a car. Another place I found to be interesting is the beach town in the Carmague is Saint
Maries de la mer. It felt like what I thought of as a 'french beach town'. You are also close to the flamingos and white horses and it is a different look at France. Whatever you do.... its France, so it will be great.

Collioure, France is really neat and you can drive into Spain from there.

I loved Cassis. From the train station you catch a bus that takes you down a short hill to the beach and the town center. There is a great market on Fridays and a beautiful harbor full of boats with restauants lining the harbor. The beach is nice and we saw people playing petanque (like bocce ball) in a square nearby.
Cassis is the starting point for hikes to the calanques which are beautiful fjord-like inlets with high cliffs and clear blue water fabulous for swimming. You can also visit them by boat (tour boats available in the harbor) but I believe they won't land on the beaches of the calanques or let you swim from the boats.

Thank you for all of your thoughts. This should give me some places to think about......Any hotel suggestions?