The ancient island of Giens was once part of the archipelago of the Golden Islands. Two strips of sand, tombolos, formed by the sea currents and by the small rivers Gapeau and Roubaud, have gradually attached the rock of Giens to the coast. Thus was born the peninsula. The western cordon is only 50 m wide and bordered all along by the beach of Almanarre, where the best specialists in the world of windsurfing and kitesurfing meet (possibility to view the beach on the website of the tourist office). The eastern one, wider (200 m in its narrowest part), is bordered by the beach of La Capte, a beach dreamed of for children and for the peace of parents, since you can walk up to 60 m from the shore! Between these two tombolos is the Pesquiers pond, an area of salt pans where, until very recently (1994), salt was still collected. Property of the Conservatoire du littoral, it is a nesting area where some remarkable species enjoy themselves, it is not rare to observe dozens of pink flamingos that have come here after a very long journey, but also coots, ducks and other egrets. More than 250 species of birds are found here every year. The mild climate also favours the growth of plants adapted to the salt and heat, wild orchids, saltwort, white reseda and the rare maritime panicaut. Around Giens, don't miss visiting the small traditional ports that make up the charm of the Hyères peninsula: the small port of Niel and the port of La Madrague. Discover also the port of the Tour-Fondue - deformation of "split", to underline its ruined state -, privileged embarkation site for the crossing towards the islands of Hyères. At the extreme south-eastern tip of the peninsula, wild points (notably the point of Badine to the east), have retained the typical character of a tongue of land that still hesitates to be tempted like its sisters by the call of the sea. In the middle of the Bachagha-Boualem square, an orientation table allows you to admire the landscape in a 360° panorama, ideal for understanding the particular geography of the double tombolo, unique in the world, and the islands of Porquerolles, Levant, and the Port-Cros national park. The poet-diplomat Saint John Perse, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1960, is buried in the small cemetery of the village of Giens.