Le Touring exists from the beginning of the 1900’s. Its name is linked with « Le Touring Club de France (TCF) », the one who inaugurated the Gold Corniche in 1903 (or Corniche de l’Estérel), this wonderful road from Saint-Raphaël to Cannes, along the turquoise water of the Mediterranean sea and the red rocks of the Estérel.
During the second world war, Le Touring has been destructed by the Germans. But it has been re-build with a new building, called « la Caserne » by the local fishermen. Le Touring has became the placet o be very quickly where everyone in Saint Raphaël loved to meet.
Le Touring Club de France (TCF), created in 1890 by a cyclist group, is an old association, disappeared in 1983 with the aim to develop tourism.
During the first years, cyclotourism was the main challenge. After that, TCF has been opened to every tourism with a large range of activities : hiking, racing, motorcycling, camping, mountain, caving, horse riding, aviation, photography, archeology protection of our heritage. TCF has been developed to 700 000 members and was very important, during the first part of the 20th century, in the tourism development in France.
The world-known novel of The Great Gatsby has been written in Saint Raphaël by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, during summer 1924.
The novel’s plot is american but few pages have been inspired by the true story of the couple in this city. Indeed, the autor stayed in this city until autumn and the romantic idyll of her wife, Zelda, with the pilot Edouard Jozan was a huge inspiration for his book.
Because of the story of this mythic place and the story of F. Scott Fitzgerald, an art deco style has been prevailed with the spirit of Gatsby.
