Plateau de la Jonquière, west of Sainte-Marguerite
Basse du Vengeur, east of Sainte-Marguerite
Plateau du Milieu, between the islands
Regulated mooring zone, north of Sainte-Marguerite
Port des Moines, Saint-Honorat
Walk the pine and eucalyptus trails of Sainte-Marguerite
Tour Fort Royal’s prison and the Iron Mask’s cell
Taste Lérina liqueur and monastery wine on Saint-Honorat
Visit the Abbaye de Lérins’ shop and cloister
Birdwatch at the Étang du Batéguier reserve
Sainte-Croix Chapel, Saint-Honorat
The monastery’s fortified tower, Saint-Honorat
Fort Royal Museum, Sainte-Marguerite
Allée des Eucalyptus, Sainte-Marguerite
Chapelle Saint-Sauveur, Saint-Honorat
The Riviera charter season runs from May to September, with the warmest, calmest sailing in July and August. The islands themselves are quietest early or late in the day, since regular ferries bring day-trippers from Cannes from mid-morning onwards in high season. Visiting at anchor before 10am or after 5pm, or during the shoulder months of May, June and September, gives a far more peaceful island, away from the crowds around Fort Royal and Saint-Honorat’s monastery gate.
The nearest airport is Nice Côte d’Azur (NCE), around 30 kilometres and a thirty-minute drive from Cannes. From there, the islands are barely a mile and a half offshore, a short tender ride of ten to fifteen minutes from Cannes’ Vieux Port or Port Pierre Canto. There is no need to book a public ferry, since a private yacht can reach either island directly, weather and mooring restrictions permitting.
The Plateau de la Jonquière, a shallow shelf west of Sainte-Marguerite, and the Basse du Vengeur to the east both offer good holding outside the regulated zones. The narrow Plateau du Milieu, the channel between the two islands, is popular but subject to a strict five-knot speed limit and heavy small-craft traffic in summer. For a quieter spot, the regulated mooring zone north of Sainte-Marguerite keeps well clear of the ferry routes.
Most guests treat the islands as a half-day or full-day stop within a wider Cannes or French Riviera itinerary rather than an overnight destination. A morning walking Sainte-Marguerite’s forest trails, followed by an afternoon at Saint-Honorat’s monastery and vineyard, comfortably fills a day. Since both islands are small, roughly three kilometres and one and a half kilometres long respectively, there is little reason to linger longer unless the abbey’s retreat guesthouse or a quiet overnight anchorage particularly appeals.
Nobody knows for certain. The prisoner held at Fort Royal from 1687 to 1698, his face concealed behind a mask, was one of the most closely guarded captives in French history, and his true identity was never recorded. Alexandre Dumas later turned the mystery into fiction, but historians still debate candidates including the Italian diplomat Ercole Antonio Mattioli. His cell can still be visited inside Fort Royal’s museum today, a genuinely eerie footnote to an otherwise peaceful island.
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