Mont Faron is the 584-metre mountain that rises directly above Toulon, and the cable car up to the summit is the single best thing to do in the city. The view from the top takes in the entire natural harbour — one of the finest in the Mediterranean — with the fleet at anchor, the city spread below, and on clear days the coastline stretching east toward Saint-Tropez and west toward Marseille.
The summit holds a small zoo with a focus on big cats, and a memorial dedicated to the Allied landings in Provence in August 1944 — Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France that opened a second front from the Mediterranean. The memorial is modest but the displays are good and the context, looking down at the harbour below, gives the history unusual immediacy. The cable car runs from Boulevard Amiral Vence on the northern edge of the city centre; the summit road is also accessible by car from the west.