Scuba Diving in Hyères: My Experience Diving in France

I was camping near Hyères in the south of France when my friends and I decided that we wanted to go scuba diving. Off the coast lays a famous french dive site called Le Sec de la Jaune Garde.

With about 20 dives and only my PADI open water certification I was a relatively inexperienced diver. I was only just starting out the month before. My friends had a little more dives under their belt at this point but were also fairly inexperienced. We were staying in Giens and already saw a couple of dive shops in the area and called around and see if any of those shops had open spots this week. We were lucky and secured a spot for the next day and the shop was even in walking distance from our campground.

Big Red Flag: They Didn’t Give Us A Dive Computer

So the next morning we walked over and started to get ready. We signed the necessary documents and started to try on the rental gear. So far so good; we were excited for our very first dive in France. We got all of our gear but noticed that there is something missing: a dive computer. We thought they just forget about it so we asked, if we could have one. “It’s okay, your guide has one, you don’t need it”, was the answer we got and it left us confused. A dive computer is a tool you can’t go diving without and it is absolutely necessary. Even as an absolute beginner you know that.

At this point we should have insisted that they give us computers. One of my friends had an apple watch he could use for diving but me and my other friend had nothing. This made us a little nervous but we were not brave enough to say something. We were already ready to head to the boat and had to leave soon so we just accepted it with the argument, that one in our group had a computer and we all just stay at the exact same depth as him. So we went on the dive without a computer. Everything was fine in the end but we should have listened to our gut and either cancel the dive or insit on a computer since this is a safety measure and you shouldn’t skip on those while diving.

Everything You Need To Know About Le Sec de la Jaune Garde

If you’re diving out of Hyères or Giens, Le Sec de la Jaune Garde deserves a spot near the top of your list. This rocky reef sits at the westernmost tip of the island of Porquerolles, inside the Port-Cros National Park, one of the best-protected marine areas on the French Mediterranean coast.

The basics:

• Location: West point of Porquerolles, Hyères area, Var, France
• Coordinates: 43.001598, 6.152900
• Depth: roughly 12–25 m at the main wall, with the option to drop deeper (down to around 40 m) toward the nearby Murènes wall if you’re certified for it
• Dive type: Drift/wall dive (tombant)

The site is often called the “Pascal” wall, and it’s actually the shallowest of the rocky walls on the western side of Porquerolles, topping out around -12 m. If your group wants to go deeper, the neighboring Murènes wall gets you to -25 m and beyond without a long swim. The rock face is riddled with cracks and crevices and lined with striking purple gorgonian fans on its eastern side, a favorite subject if you’re bringing a camera down. Depending on the current, you can also get lucky with pelagic sightings passing by in the open water.

It’s a big site, too, most dive centers will tell you there’s plenty of room even when several boats are moored nearby, so it rarely feels crowded even in peak season.

Who is it for?

Because the top of the wall sits at a manageable 12 m, this is a site that works for open water divers, while the drop-off toward the Murènes gives more advanced divers something to chase too. That range makes it a solid choice for mixed-level groups, you can send newer divers to the shallower plateau while others with more depth clearance explores lower down.

Where is Le Sec de la Jaune Garde?

Nearly every dive shop based in Hyères or on the Giens peninsula runs boat trips out to Porquerolles and the surrounding sites, Le Sec de la Jaune Garde included. Expect a boat ride of anywhere from 20–45 minutes depending on which marina you’re leaving from.

Wondering where to stay in Giens? Check out my camping recommendation for Giens.

What Does Scuba Diving in Hyères cost?

Before you book, it helps to know what you’re actually paying for and prices in this area vary more than you’d think depending on the shop, the dive site, and whether you need gear rental or a guide. I compared a few of the dive centers operating around Giens and Hyères to give you a realistic budget.

Discover dives (baptême de plongée)

This is your first-timer, no-certification-needed dive with an instructor.

• Espace Mer Plongée (Giens): from around €49
• Divin’Giens (Camping International, Giens): from €86
• Mio Palmo (Hyères): full-day discover dive + snorkeling package around €99

Single exploration dives (certified divers)

• Divin’Giens: from €43 per dive, decreasing with group/couple/family bookings
• Mio Palmo: half-day morning dive around €45; wreck dives (like the Rubis) from €57
• Industry average across the Var region: roughly €30–35 for a basic autonomous dive, €75–100 for something more technical (night dives, deep wrecks, or far-out sites)

Multi-dive packages

• Mio Palmo weekend package (4 dives + accommodation): €220–260
• Mio Palmo full week (10 dives + 7 nights accommodation): €590
• Most clubs across the region: 10-dive packages average around €300

Equipment rental

If it’s not bundled into your dive price, expect €10–20 for a full rental set (wetsuit, fins, weight belt, tank).

Marine Life at Le Sec de la Jaune Garde

Le Sec de la Jaune Garde sits within a network of underwater ridges connecting Porquerolles to the Giens peninsula, and it’s known among local divers as one of the richer sites in the area for both fixed and free-swimming fauna. The rock face itself is thick with gorgonian fans in shades of purple, red, and yellow, along with red coral and sponges tucked into the crevices, the kind of scenery that makes for great macro photography even before you spot anything moving. Look into the cracks and folds of the rock and you’ll regularly find conger eels and moray eels hiding in the shadows.

Groupers are a common sighting here too, sometimes in good numbers, and keep an eye on the sandy patches and open water for schools of sea bream, seabass, and castagnoles moving in unison. If you’re diving on a day with some current, this is also one of the better spots to get lucky with pelagic visitors passing through the blue: barracuda have been spotted at neighboring sites along the same ridge, so don’t rule them out here either. It’s this mix of a dramatic, fish-filled wall plus the occasional open-water surprise that makes the site a favorite for underwater photographers.

My honest take: Is Diving at Le Sec de la Jaune Garde worth it?

We’ve heard some stories about diving in France and frensh divers before and none of them were good but we wanted to see for ourselves. Not giving your clients a dive computer is inexcusable and we should have definitely said something. Now, that I am a more experienced diver with more self esteem I would insist on a computer. And you should say something when you are not comfortable too!

But other than that the dive was pretty nice. The corals were pretty to look at and we did see some cool fish and marine life. My verdict is, that under different circumstances I would love to go diving there again.

Have you been diving in Hyères? Let me know about your experience in the comments.