The valley of Costebelle near Hyères discribes the beautiful landscape of this area where englishmen have built an anglican chapel.
The valley of Costebelle is a bucolic treasure
“A notice of Hyères would be incomplète without some allusion to the valley of Costebelle, which lies to the south-west of the Ermitage, spur of the Montagnes des Oiseaux.
The valley is embosomed in pine woods, broken here and there by vineyards and olive orchards, and by the gardens of the few villas which have sprung up there as yet.
Near the shore there are large groves of olive trees, which are finer than at Hyères itself, and indicate a warmer climate.
There is a fair carriage-road through the woods, which reaches the shore about a mile from the Hyères end of the valley, and joins the coast-road to the village of Ceinturon further west.
Near Hyères but so peaceful
Among the pine woods at some distance from the sea the Duke of Grafton has built a splendid house.
With the exception of two or three villas, the only accommodation for visitors in the valley of Costebelle is the Pension Anglaise, a small and very sheltered unpretentious house, which nestles among the pine trees almost immediately below the Ermitage ridge, and is capable of containing about twenty-two persons.
It would be almost sure to succeed if enlarged and properly managed.
A better hotel is needed at Costebelle, the salon and salle à manger of the present pension being small, low, and stuffy, though the bed rooms are tolerably good, but not lofty.
The walks in the valley of Costebelle and on the neighbouring hills are numerous and picturesque, and, even with a strong mistral blowing, there are few days when an invalid cannot get a sheltered walk there. “
This description of the valley of Costebelle near Hyères goes back to …1879. It can be discovered in ” The Riviera” , a book written by Edward Issac Sparks.
An anglican chapel was also built in 1897.