Events and festivals for the weekend of October 17, 2026 in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur: Hyères' Villa Noailles brings together fashion, photography and accessories, and Collobrières celebrates the chestnut on Sunday the 18th.
Catwalks, portfolios, jewellery. In Hyères, the Villa Noailles hosts its festival from October 15 to 18. Events and festivals for the weekend of October 17, 2026 in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur: Hyères' Villa Noailles brings together fashion, photography and accessories, and Collobrières celebrates the chestnut on Sunday the 18th.
Fashion, photography and accessories at the Villa Noailles
The Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories takes place on the Montée de Noailles: founded in 1986, it gathers young designers in competition every autumn, and the 17-18 October weekend is its end, since the festival opens on October 15. It closes on Sunday the 18th.
Listed as a historic monument, the villa that Robert Mallet-Stevens designed between 1923 and 1933 for Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, and where Man Ray, Luis Buñuel, Fernand Léger and Giacometti were received in the 1920s, is now run by the City of Hyères. Three categories compete here. Fashion goes through shows in the spaces of the Villa, photography through portfolios hung in its rooms, and accessories through original jewellery, shoes, leather goods and ornaments.
Hundreds of applications arrive each year from fashion and photography schools. About ten candidates per category stay in the final before a jury of art directors, magazine editors-in-chief, photographers and designers, and the winners receive a cash grant and creative residencies with industrial partners. Viktor & Rolf, Anthony Vaccarello, now artistic director of Saint Laurent, Christophe Lemaire, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Julien Dossena, artistic director of Paco Rabanne, and Marine Serre were all discovered here.
The shows and the competition events are by professional invitation or on a specific ticket office, while the exhibitions open to the public according to the programme. From Toulon, allow about 20 minutes on the A57, exit Hyères, and 1 h 30 from Marseille.
Tickets are booked on villanoailles.com.
Three Sundays of chestnuts in Collobrières
On Sunday, October 18, on the Place de la Libération, the Fêtes de la Châtaigne de Collobrières hold their second day in the Maures massif. Admission is free, from about 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Producers from the massif sell fresh chestnuts, handmade marrons glacés, chestnut cream, flours and jams. Stalls roast chestnuts, others serve chestnut porridge, and local cooking adds porcini mushrooms, olive oil, honey and goat cheese. The Confiserie Azuréenne, which makes marrons glacés and chestnut cream, is based in the village. The festival follows the fruit from the tree to the finished product, from harvest to roasting and then confectionery.
It was nicknamed "the bread tree". For centuries, the chestnut fed the people of the Maures, who ate it roasted, boiled, as flour or preserved. The rural exodus of the 20th century left many chestnut groves abandoned, and the festival helps restore value to this heritage.
The programme: street shows, traditional Provençal music, craft exhibitions, demonstrations of skills tied to the chestnut grove, nature walks and workshops for children.
Collobrières lies 24 km from Toulon, 20 km from Bormes-les-Mimosas and 40 km from Saint-Tropez. Allow about 40 minutes from Toulon via the D14 and D39.
Parking at the edge of the village is free.