La Fourmigue (Village sous-marin / Underwater Village)

The site sits in the middle of Golfe-Juan bay, well sheltered on three sides: the mainland coast of Golfe-Juan, Vallauris and Cannes shadows the whole northern arc (N–NW–NE), Cap d'Antibes blocks the east and northeast, and the Lérins Islands cut the southwest. The Mistral/Tramontane (NW–N) blows offshore off the land here with little fetch, so it mainly flattens the sea. The genuinely open window is to the south and southeast, across the mouth of the bay toward the open Ligurian Sea, so the site's real exposure is a Marin/Scirocco (SE) blow or a sustained southerly, which pushes wind-sea and swell straight in and stirs up the shallow village; a Libeccio (SW) reaches it only partly, diffracting around the Lérins. There is no true ocean groundswell in this basin — surface conditions are driven by local wind over fetch — so on calm or offshore-wind days the reef is placid.