Baie de Briande is a bay in

La Croix-Valmer La Croix-Valmer (; ) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Geography La Croix-Valmer is at the foot of the Massif des Maures hills in the Bay of Cavalaire-sur-Mer, halfway betwee ...

, on the

French Riviera The French Riviera, known in French as the (; , ; ), is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is considered to be the coastal area of the Alpes-Maritimes department, extending fr ...

south of

Saint-Tropez Saint-Tropez ( , ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Var (department), Var departments of France, department and the regions of France, region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Southern France. It is west of Nice and east of Marseille, o ...

. The bay is used by tourists. The bay and the adjacent land are protected as an and an of the Port-Cros National Park.

History

The is a prehistoric

dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber Megalith#Tombs, megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000 ...

located 300m inland. Allied forces landed at the bay in August 1944 as part of

Operation Dragoon Operation Dragoon (initially Operation Anvil), known as Débarquement de Provence in French ("Provence Landing"), was the code name for the landing operation of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Provence (Southern France) on 15Augu ...

, the invasion of southern France during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Cap Taillat, the headland at the eastern end of the bay, was used for filming the 1968 film ''

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' is a 1968 children's film, children's Musical film, musical fantasy film directed by Ken Hughes and produced by Albert R. Broccoli. It stars Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Lionel Jeffries, Gert Fröbe, Anna Quayle, ...

''.

References

Populated coastal places in France {{Tourism-stub