Iles de Lérins

The island group of the Iles de Lérins lies between the Golfe de la Napoule and the Golfe Juan. The two principal islands are Ste-Marguerite and St-Honorat. The ferry plies several times a day between Cannes and the islands 4km/2.5mi out.

As early as the fifth and sixth centuries the islands were an important center of ecclesiastical erudition and monastic life. In the year 660 the monastery assumed the Rule of St Benedict. Attacks by the Saracens and later by pirates from Genoa affected the monks very severely, and in the 16th century the convent began to decline into obscurity.