Travel Differently went to the Giens peninsula in October 2026. We went to see a hamlet set in the pines, with the old salt ponds beside it. We did not come to map the beaches, the kite water, or the boat to the islands. Those guides already exist. This page is the stay, and it stops where our days stopped. Updated October 2026.
What we visited, and what we did not
We slept in the hamlet. We walked the boardwalk under the umbrella pines, ate in the restaurant, and sat by the fire once the light had gone. We did not spend the day on the loungers. We did not hike the cliffs. We did not take the ferry. If you need the whole peninsula, this is the wrong page. If you want the house between the trees and the water, this is the one.
The hamlet is not in the centre of Hyères. From Nice our drive took about an hour and three quarters. Toulon is closer if that flight suits you. You come for the pines and the ponds. The town is a separate drive.
The ponds the wood still holds
Through the pine branches the water is pink and pale blue. The flats run back toward low hills. This was a salt works until 1981. Then it stood empty for about thirty years. A marina and a golf would have cut the pines and dried the ponds. The family put the old buildings back instead. We photographed the water from inside the wood. We did not walk a loop of the ponds and then write as if we had.
The pine wood and the ponds sit in a protected landscape, beside Port-Cros national park. That is why the hamlet looks like a repair, not a new village. We are not reprinting a certificate, and we are not turning a label into a tour.
Who keeps the place
Le Hameau des Pesquiers is the name on the door. Adrian Lelièvre runs the hotel, the restaurant and the spa. Oliver is on the floor. Adrian's father, Stéphane, is a chef. He drew the rooms and the tables. He drew the dolphins that stand here. He still makes the sauces, including honey and thyme.
My father did all the decoration, every choice of table.
His parents started at nineteen, with fourteen seats. Stéphane was in the kitchen. His mother was in the dining room. The place still feels like that story: a family that grew a dining room into a hamlet, and kept the hand on the sauces.
The old customs house had lost its roof. They straightened the building and put it back as the welcome, and as the spa. You arrive through a row of arches. Driftwood planters stand in the court. The chandelier of the hall shows through the glass. It is a quiet arrival. Nobody is performing a lobby.
The practical lines, including the five stars, are on the hotel's own site. The European Ecolabel has been part of the place since it opened. That is their public line. Adrian said: "It is not greenwashing. We had to." That is the sentence. We do not add an audit, a page count, or a dam.
He described the scale in one breath. Forty-eight rooms, set far apart, so a full house still feels quiet. You notice the crowd at breakfast more than you do on the path. That is the feeling we had. The wood does the separating.
Rooms with distance between them
We had two terrace rooms. One has a hanging chair under the pine. Another opens onto a deck with its own hot tub. A shrub stands in front of the tub, the cover is on, and the room behind the glass is already lit. Ask which side faces the path and which faces the ponds. We only slept in the terrace rooms, so we will not invent the others. The distance is the point of asking. It is not a promise that every date looks like the photograph.
Tip: Ask for the terrace, and ask which way it faces. The rooms sit far enough apart that a full house stays quiet on the path. Breakfast is where you see that the hamlet was full.
Dinner, breakfast, and where the evening meets
The restaurant is in the hamlet. The hotel site puts it in the clock building, with rooms above. Dinner was there on both of our nights. Breakfast is the frame we kept: bread, coffee, fruit, on a worn wooden table. The honey comes from their hives. Adrian called it their bees, and local. Breakfast is not assumed in a quote. Neither is dinner. A treatment is not assumed either. If you want them, they are lines you ask for.
In the evening the hamlet meets at the fire. The circle we kept has the fire lit and the stools empty. He said: "The brasero is where it converges. It lets us see people and tell them where they are." The rooms pull people apart. The fire puts them back in one circle, long enough to hear where they are. He talks about autumn as the season people forget. We were here in October. We have not seen July, and we have not seen January. We will not describe a month we have not slept in.
The chapel, closed while the day is on
The chapel is a low yellow building with a tiled roof and a bell in a small arch. They restored it, the glass included, and they made the bell ring again. It is the mark of the hamlet. People here have known that roof for a long time. There is mass on Sundays, for the village as well as for guests. The chapel stays closed during the day, because what is inside belongs to the parish, not to the front desk. If you want it open, ask. They open it when the mass does, and they will show it to a guest when that fits. We do not turn any of that into a timetable.
The pool with nobody in it
The spa is in the same old customs house as the welcome. We took one treatment. The practitioners are theirs. The products are Nuxe. The wet area has a pool, a sauna and a hammam. The photograph is the pool with no one in it. That emptiness is what we want you to see. A treatment is a line on a quote, not a detail hiding in the room rate.
The tower above the roofs
Above the roofs, a bell tower rises out of the pine wood. It is not the chapel bell. It marks the hamlet from the path, the way a village marks itself before you have found the door. We did not climb it. We looked up.
What you are asking for
There is no nightly rate on the hotel site, as we read it in October 2026. We will not invent a number, and we will not copy one from another website. A quote names the room, the dates, and what is in or out. Parking on the property is not assumed to be free. Nothing is due until the quote is signed.
Field note: October on the Giens peninsula, for us, was the pines, the ponds, the fire, and a chapel that stays shut until Sunday. It was not the beach, and it was not a season we have not lived.
If this is the stay you want, write to us with the dates and the room in mind. If another house fits better, look through the immersive catalogue. The wider set of houses is on the ecolodge map. The peninsula is one corner of sustainable travel in France. If you want the method before the room, read nine steps to travelling with a lighter hand.
FAQ
Is there a published nightly rate?
Not on the hotel site, as we read it in October 2026. The stay is on request.
Who runs the place?
Adrian Lelièvre runs the hotel, the restaurant and the spa. Oliver is on the floor. Stéphane, his father, drew the rooms and still makes the sauces.
How long does it take to reach the Giens peninsula from Nice?
Our drive took about an hour and three quarters. That is one road, in October, not a traffic study. Toulon is closer. We did not spend the day on the beach once we arrived.
Is the chapel open for a visit?
It stays closed during the day. There is mass on Sundays, for the village as well as for guests. Ask the desk if you want the door open. We are not publishing an hour.
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