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France12 dive sites
France is a scuba diving country, from the Mediterranean to the atolls of the Pacific, and everywhere the briefing is in French. At La Gabinière, in Port-Cros, you count about ten groupers on every dive. In Fakarava South Pass, you drift with about 600 gray reef sharks, and hammerheads pass Rangiroa from December to March.
In mainland France, the season runs from May to October in the Mediterranean, but only from June to September in Brittany. French Polynesia has no bad month. In the French West Indies, the clearest water comes from December to April, with the dry season, and September is the worst month for hurricanes.
In the Var, a guided dive with full gear costs €77 to €110. Breton nonprofit clubs go out from €40, but you must join and take the FFESSM license, at €50 a year. In French Polynesia, the Tuamotu air pass, from €483 in low season, comes on top of the flight from Paris.
The TGV takes you to Marseille or Toulon, and Figari is the closest airport to Bonifacio. Nonstop flights link Paris to the French West Indies and Réunion, where French citizens only need their ID card. For French Polynesia, plan about 22 hours, with a stopover in the United States that requires an ESTA and a passport.
FrancePassBoulari Pass cuts through the barrier reef between Grand Récif Aboré and Kué Reef, south of Amédée Lighthouse, about forty minutes from Nouméa.
FranceReefCap La Houssaye, a basalt point north of Saint-Gilles harbor, marks the northern edge of the Réunion Marine Nature Reserve.
FranceReefThe Cousteau Reserve surrounds two volcanic islets 1.5 km off Malendure beach in Guadeloupe and has been the marine core of the National Park since 2009.
FrancePelagicDiamond Rock is a 175 m volcanic pinnacle 2 km off the south coast of Martinique, in the current of the Saint Lucia Channel, where you dive a narrow crevice at around 20 m...
FrancePassFakarava South Pass, 200 m wide, is part of a UNESCO biosphere reserve and home to 600 gray reef sharks on average, joined by more than 17,000 camouflage groupers that come to spawn around...
FranceReefThe Glénan Islands are an archipelago of granite and white sand off Concarneau, where clear water hides kelp forests, walls and about ten wrecks.
FranceWallAt La Gabinière, in Europe's first marine park, the groupers do not flee: they watch you arrive and stay within arm's reach, because nobody may fish them here anymore.
FranceWreckThe Liban is a 91 m liner that sank on June 7, 1903 off the southern tip of Maïre Island and now lies at 28 to 36 m in Calanques National Park.
FranceReefMérouville is a granite shoal southeast of the Lavezzi Islands, in the Bouches de Bonifacio reserve, between 17 and 36 m, where resident dusky groupers, some over 30 kg, come to hover one or...
FranceWreckThe Rubis is a Free French Naval Forces minelaying submarine, scuttled in 1958 off Cap Camarat, that sits upright and intact on the sand at 41 m, wrapped in anthias.
FrancePassThe S Pass, an old riverbed, cuts 2 to 4 km through Mayotte's eastern barrier reef, inside the Marine Nature Park.
FrancePassTiputa Pass links the Rangiroa lagoon to the ocean over 950 m, in 14 to 60 m of water, less than 10 minutes by boat from the Avatoru dive centers.
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FranceSome of the dusky groupers of the Lavezzi Islands, in Corsica, weigh more than 30 kg and stay a meter or two from you. They have grown used to divers, because the archipelago has been protected since 1982 and fishing for them is banned in the French Mediterranean.
Overseas, you switch to coral without changing certification. In the Tuamotu atolls, the current in the passes carries you from the ocean into the lagoon. About 25 bottlenose dolphins come almost every day to Tiputa Pass, in Rangiroa, among the gray reef sharks.
In the Mediterranean, La Gabinière, at Port-Cros, is thirty minutes from Giens or Le Lavandou. It is rated Advanced, but you see groupers there from 15 meters. In Corsica, the Mérouville shoal, out of Bonifacio, is rated French Level 2. With Level 3, you go down to the bottom of the Rubis submarine, between Cavalaire and Saint-Tropez. A guided Level 2 diver stays above 40 meters there.
In Brittany, you dive among the kelp of the Glénan Islands, off Concarneau. Breton clubs require Level 2 from visiting divers. CIP Glénan takes all levels, but only on stays on Saint-Nicolas island.
In the French West Indies, the Cousteau Reserve, in Guadeloupe, ranges from try dives to walls at 40 meters. The Saint-Pierre wrecks in Martinique, sunk by the eruption of Mount Pelée, lie from less than 10 to more than 50 meters.
In the Indian Ocean, beginners start on Réunion, at Cap La Houssaye. In Mayotte, you dive the S Pass with turtles and gray reef sharks.
In French Polynesia, Tahiti suits beginners, but the trip is for the Tuamotu passes. Fakarava South Pass is open from the first certification level. In Rangiroa, Tiputa Pass has strong current and is better dived with Advanced.
The manta rays of New Caledonia get cleaned in Boulari Pass.
La Gabinière is at its best in June, September and October, with fewer boats than in high summer. At the Lavezzi Islands, May and October are calmer, in cooler water.
The great hammerheads of Rangiroa arrive in December and leave in March, with the best odds until February. If you lack the certification to go down to them, come in June instead, when gray reef sharks gather by the hundreds in the Tiputa canyons. In June and July, at the full moon, more than 17,000 camouflage groupers come to spawn in Fakarava South Pass.
The Boulari Pass mantas come mostly from January to April. Until March, it is the hot cyclone season, and trips get canceled in bad weather. From June to October, humpback whales swim along Réunion. You also hear them singing underwater in the French West Indies, in January and February.
In Giens, Ulysse Plongée charges €77 for a guided dive with full gear, plus €12 to €15 for Port-Cros. A morning of two guided dives at the Lavezzi costs €124, or €102 for unguided divers. Without your own gear, rental adds €36.
A fully equipped dive costs only €50 to €58 in Guadeloupe and Martinique. A rental car is essential to reach Malendure beach, where the Cousteau Reserve boats leave from. In the Tuamotu, budget €88 to €96 per dive. The day in Fakarava South Pass, with two dives and lunch, costs €293 to €298 from Rotoava.
A medical certificate less than a year old is mandatory everywhere, except for a try dive. In mainland France, a Level 1 diver dives guided down to 20 meters, and a PADI Open Water usually follows the same rule. Port-Cros National Park requires a free permit, which the club can request for you.
French Polynesia's rules limit a Level 1, an Open Water or even an Advanced diver to 29 meters. The Rangiroa hammerhead dives go deeper than 45 meters. Even with Level 3, cleared to 49 meters, you only do the shallower ones. The territory's only recompression chamber is in Tahiti. New Caledonia has remained tense since the riots, and a curfew can be imposed overnight. For Mayotte, book your dive center and your accommodation in advance, because the island is recovering from Cyclone Chido.
Hotels, apartments and rooms around Hyères, Tour Fondue harbor, the starting point for dives at La Gabinière, with current prices.