Anchorage

Baie du Lazaret

1.8FranceVar

Shelter: N, S, SW, W, NW
Seabed: mud
Anchoring: Allowed

Mud-bottomed bay inside the rade of Toulon, between La Seyne-sur-Mer and the Saint-Mandrier peninsula.

Pontoon
Beach

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Enter the Petite Rade from the east through the passe between Fort Balaguier and the Saint-Mandrier breakwater. Keep clear of the mussel farms marked by yellow cardinals in the northern half of the bay. Sheltered from N, S, SW, W and NW winds; the easterly swell enters the Grande Rade.

Practical

Mud bottom, good holding in 5 to 10 m. Ponton Tamaris lies 0.3 NM west for visitor berths. Port Pin Rolland 0.7 NM south has 620 berths, diesel, water, a 50 t travel lift and a boatyard. Shellfish farms occupy the northern bay and must be given a wide berth.

Ashore

Tamaris waterfront with the Villa Tamaris art centre in a 19th-century Moorish-style mansion built by banker Michel Pacha, 300 m from the pontoon. Fort Balaguier museum of naval history at 1.2 km east. Coastal path to the Saint-Mandrier peninsula for walks to the Creux Saint-Georges beach at 2 km.

History

The bay takes its name from the lazaret built in 1821 to quarantine ships during the Marseille plague outbreaks. The Tamaris shoreline was developed from 1880 by Michel Pacha, a French engineer who ran the lighthouses of the Ottoman Empire, leaving a row of Orientalist villas.