There is a particular quality to the light in the Esterel at the end of July — amber, almost reluctant to leave, settling over the volcanic red rock and the old vine rows as though it too has nowhere better to be. At Domaine Jas des Oliviers on the outskirts of Fréjus, that light arrives each evening like a punctuation mark, and on the night of 31 July 2026, it will fall on an audience gathered for something that sits neatly between theatre, poetry recital, and wine education — without being quite any of those things.
The event is Contes Dits-Vins, part of the itinerant summer festival Les Renc'ARTs de l'Été, organised by Cie Souffleuses d'Âmes and running across nine towns in the Var from 30 July to 25 August 2026. The evening begins at 19h00. The address is straightforward: 1386 Avenue André Léotard, 83600 Fréjus. A single ticket — 15 euros, reservation required, places limited — covers both the performance and a tasting of the domaine's wines. Advance booking is through HelloAsso, via the company's site at terredeparoles.jimdofree.com. The same programme repeats on Friday 14 August.
The Storyteller and the Vine
The performance itself is the work of Claudia Mad'moiZèle, a storyteller whose practice weaves together oral tales, song, and poetry. Her show takes the vine as its subject from root to glass — the physical labour of pruning and harvesting, the slow alchemy of fermentation, the culture and mythology that accumulate around a single bottle over centuries. It is conceived, in the language of the organisers, as a journey that begins with il était une fois — once upon a time — and ends with a first sip. Whether you speak French or are simply attuned to the rhythms of a skilled performer, the format rewards patience and attention.
The choice of venue is not incidental. Domaine Jas des Oliviers is a family estate that has worked the same volcanic Esterel soils for seven generations. That geological detail matters: the Esterel massif is one of the oldest volcanic formations in France, its deep-red porphyry rock producing soils that stress the vine in productive ways, concentrating flavour and mineral character in the fruit. The Var as a whole is Provence's largest wine appellation by volume, and in recent decades its producers have moved steadily toward quality over quantity — Jas des Oliviers among them, with cuvées that have collected medals along the way.
'Une alliance parfaite entre l'art du récit et le plaisir du terroir' — the organisers' phrase for what happens when a story about wine is told inside the winery that made it.
After the Last Word
When the performance ends, the evening continues at the tasting table. Guests move from the imagined world of the conte — the vineyard as fairy tale, the vigneron as protagonist — into the concrete evidence of what those soils and that labour actually produce. The domaine's own cuvées are poured. It is a deliberate sequencing: hear the story first, then taste the proof.
Fréjus itself rewards the traveller who arrives a day early or stays a day late. The town is one of the most historically layered on the Côte d'Azur — a Roman port city, Forum Julii, established by Julius Caesar, with an amphitheatre, aqueduct remnants, and a remarkable early Christian baptistery that still stands in the old episcopal precinct. The beach at Fréjus-Plage is wide and relatively unhurried by the standards of high-season Provence. The Esterel hinterland, accessible by road or trail, offers some of the most dramatic coastal scenery between Cannes and Saint-Raphaël.
The evening at Jas des Oliviers asks very little of its guests beyond a willingness to sit still as the light fades over the vines and listen to someone who has spent years learning how to tell a story. The wine, when it comes, will taste better for it.