It's a park to play hide and seek among islands of cork oaks and holm oaks, over wooden bridges by giant reeds and yellow-flowered Spanish broom, behind bamboos. It's also an exotic adventure. A stroll through the Palmeraie, part of the garden to the original house that existed here before 2000, and you travel through Argentina with the Blue Needle Palms, to Southern California with the towering Washingtonian palm trees, to the slender-stemmed Chinese windmill palms.

Snatched away from development by the commune of Fréjus, the Parc Aréca is 3.5 hectares of botanical delights in a form of a public park in the town of Saint-Aygulf. For kids, swings, slides and a wooden boat play area make for added fun after a stroll through the alleys that criss-cross the park.

Useful Info: Picnics not allowed in the park. For a picnic on the beach, head down to the coastal path at the end of the park and walk west by the coast to the sandy Calanque du Pont de Bois.

Keep dogs on leash in the park. Park is open 8AM to 8PM summers and 8AM to 6PM from October to end of April. Located on Avenue Alfred de Musset, Saint-Aygulf.