Dragging our cases up the escalator from the Metro into the throng of the Gare de Lyon we round the corner of the main hall and, for a moment, I am rooted to the spot. Around 30 metres in front of us the trains are ranked end-on beneath the sunlit roof of this glasshouse.

Steam puffs in soft clouds around the platform edges. My heart pounds.

Three beats later sense returns, and I realise a series of small water jets around the ceiling spray a mist into this warm, airy space where tiny birds flit between the shrubs and the cafe tables. My son is doing his best to humour me, but it’s clear the romantic associations of rail travel, and its steam-age origins, have got the better of me. Trains can have a soporific effect … 

We began this trip in Glasgow Central, speeding south to London before the Eurostar hop to the Gare du Nord. City to city, it’s a glorious way to eat up the miles. With less than five hours to Euston Station, and allowing an hour for the 10-minute walk and check-in at St Pancras, it takes just over eight hours to our stop-over in Paris. That’s a little more than it would have taken by air, but so much more comfortable and stress-free. Now we are on our way again, departing the Gare de Lyon for the original French Riviera resort, Hyeres.

The TGV powers us south, away from the dust of the Paris streets to the balmy Mediterranean. These double-decker trains possess a cruising speed of more than 180-miles per hour, and are especially enjoyable if you can book the more spacious upper level. Just over four hours later, after one stop at Toulon, the train empties at Hyeres and we are carried through this small rural-style station in a flood of excited holidaymakers, emerging into a solid wall of July heat and a near silence broken only by the welcoming chorus of cicadas as the crowd dissolves into the myriad corners of this beautiful town.

Hyeres stretches up from it’s walled medieval heart, through scented gardens, olive groves and pine trees to the hilltop ruins of 11th century Chateau Des Aires. From here, and from the nearby modernist triumph Villa Noailles, spectacular views reveal the diversity of this area, as Hyeres sweeps down through the centre and over the Giens peninsula towards the sea and the beckoning Iles d’Hyeres. 

With so many gardens, and it’s more formal moniker of Hyeres des Palmes, it’s no surprise this corner of France enjoys around 300 days of sunshine each year, a climate that began attracting Britons from the late 18th century. One of many famous visitors was Robert Louis Stevenson, who wintered in Hyères over two years from 1883, as part of his relentless quest to find relief for his chest condition.

In his final years on Samoa, RLS wrote: “Happy (said I); I was only happy once; that was at Hyères”. Edinburgh’s man of letters lived at the Grand Hotel, in the Avenue des Iles d’Or – still there, but now a distinctive apartment block – and later in La Solitude, a small house on the nearby Avenue Victor-Basch, part of Parc Sainte-Claire, once noting he lived “next door to Heaven”. 

That charm has endured in Hyeres, where patisseries and craft shops jostle for space in the twisting cobbled streets of the medieval centre, leading down to the La Belle Epoque splendour of stone villas and terraces on avenues lined with palm trees. There is a sense of timelessness about Hyeres, an appealing quality that may partly be explained by its unique location on the extreme south of Provence. Despite its early resort credentials, Hyeres has not been developed like other parts of the Riviera, and to some extent, it has been squeezed out by St Tropez to the east, and Marseille to the west. For those in the know, however, Hyeres offers a heady mix of laid-back cultural appeal, active water sports, natural beauty, and the Provencal promise of great food and superb wines.

We took time out to visit the Villa Noailles, the 1927 summer home and cubist garden designed by architect Robert Mallet-Stevens for art patrons Charles and Marie-Laure Noailles. Now a gallery, and the focus for Hyere’s annual International Festival of Art and Photography, the renovated house is a remarkable example of the period, offering unrivalled views down to the town and the sea. Walking through the gardens that surround this villa, and back down into the town, we join the afternoon buzz in Place Masillon.

The Tour des Templiers stands guard over the medieval square, where we sit beneath a parasol, sipping our cordials. At a couple of euros, and with an endless supply of iced water to dilute the lemon syrup, we follow the French example that is so much cheaper, and far more refreshing, than any fizzy soft-drink brands.

Our accommodation is 10 minutes outside Hyeres, and although we know we are staying in a gite next to a vineyard, we are not fully prepared for the magnificent impact of Chateau de la Clapiere, in the Côtes de Provence, the largest AOC of the eight Provencal wine designations. So yes, the rose wine is wonderful, shaded only by the generosity of our hosts Henri Fabre and Bruno Bartelli. Henri’s family took over the original chateau and vineyard in 1928, and he recently completed a six-year project of rebuilding and refurbishment, adding the gites to an already flourishing wine business. Henri loves to tell the scandalous tale of how well-to-do Scot Elizabeth Isabella Johnstone-Gordon married into the original vineyard dynasty in 1876. Although, unfortunately, when she wed Eugene Roissard Bellet to become a baroness, she was still married to Hugh Scott back home …

As he shows us around the chateau, with time for a dip in the swimming pool and a chance to explore the huge greenhouse with its exotic birds and plants, Henri also tells us how his own great-grandmother, as a young girl, met Queen Victoria on her visit to Hyeres in 1892, a celebrity sojourn that conferred upon the area a certain tourism cachet.

Our La Clapiere hosts provide a Provencal feast of tomato salad, zucchini tart, home-made bread and sensational wines, followed the next morning by an equally lavish breakfast, including local honey and a marmalade made with oranges from their own trees.

After a stop at the early market, stalls heaving with huge tomatoes, peppers, peaches, and broom-sized bunches of thyme, the essential taste of Hyeres, we’re off to the sea.

It’s a 20-minute drive down the Giens peninsula, a double tombolo, two spits of land that encase a vast salt marsh – one of two in Hyeres that are home to flamingos – and lead to the port, where we catch the busy ferry to Porquerolles. There are two other islands on this Costa Azzurra, the Parc National de Port-Cros and Ile du Levante, but with the temperature pushing 42C, car-free Porquerolles is ideal for our plan to spend the day on near-deserted sandy coves, swimming and lounging in the shade with a beer or two.

That evening we loll on the bus, a flock of kite surf sails waving farewell along our coastal route back to town, any thoughts of the following day’s journey pushed to the edges of our minds. As the light fades, we track down a tiny restaurant tucked away near an ancient fortress wall.

Paris may be a short hop by rail, but it seemed a world away then …

* Virgin Trains’ Glasgow-London service is hourly Mon-Sat and on Sun afternoons, typical tilting-train journey time is four hours 32 minutes, standard off-peak return £126.70, advance tickets starting £21.00 one-way, www.virgintrains.com. Eurostar to Paris from £69 return, www.eurostar.com. 

A three-day InterRail France pass starts £185 standard class for adults (also available for 4, 6 or 8 days within a one month period), see raileurope.co.uk or call 0844 848 4070,. Single journey return tickets from Paris-Hyeres cost around £70. 

RyanAir are due to start flights from London Stansted to Toulon-Hyeres Airport in March.

Chateau de la Clapiere Cru Classe gites are around £290 (350euro) a night for two people plus breakfast, see chateau-la-clapiere.com and hyeres-tourisme.com for a variety of accommodation options. 

First published in Scotland on Sunday