Port Grimaud Cite Lacustre Cote D Azur (39)
Activites Mer Grimaud Cote D Azur 12After the Second World War, François Spoerry set sail on the Mediterranean on board his boat, ‘Le Colibri’.
He navigated his way around Italy, the Cyclades and Greece, stopping off at numerous ports.
These were what captured his imagination and a dream began to take shape in his mind.
Port Grimaud Cite Lacustre Cote D Azur (40)A qualified sailor, François Spoerry began to imagine a place where land and sea would combine to make a whole – a sheltered place to moor his boat.
What enabled François Spoerry to buy the initial plots of land for Port Grimaud?
One day in 1962, during a family lunch, he expressed a desire to find a place where he could moor his boat close to home.
His uncle told him about his estate agent friend who had a plot of land on his books that was impossible to sell. An unassuming plot of marshland which had been looking for a buyer for 7 years.
On the same day, at 4pm, the father of Port Grimaud signed the sale agreement, which gave him access to the initial 30 hectares of what would become the coastal town (of 90 hectares today).
His idea of the land dipping its toes into the sea could start to take shape.
