Saint-Onora – the smaller of the two large Islands of Lérins archipelago, lying opposite the Croisette. Island this is, in fact, a cliff top, covered with a layer of fertile soil. The more surprising its history and present.

It was named in memory of sacred Honorate, the founder of the local Catholic convent. The legend says that a monk made here two miracles: destroy infested with serpents and Scorpions, and opened in the arid land of the fresh water source. The source is still effective (though now with a pump). It was he who enabled the monastery to survive for nearly sixteen centuries.

St. Onora small: one and a half kilometer long, 400 meters wide. From the largest island of the archipelago of Saint-Marguerite, it is separated by a narrow (600 m) Strait. Boats coming here from Cannes, we stick to a pier on the Northern coast. The dirt road leads to the South coast, where lies the Lérins monastery. The extreme southern point of the island – a tiny promontory on which stands the mighty medieval Fort St. Onora.

For centuries, the island changed hands: it had been seized by the Saracens and Spaniards, plundered by pirates, anew strengthened by the French. In 1794, General Bonaparte, the future Emperor Napoleon, raised on the Eastern and Western capes of the two furnaces for heat kernels. In these furnaces cannonballs heated red-hot, turning in incendiary shells, deadly for wooden sailing ships. These two furnaces are still in use.

From the top platform of the fortress island is visible at a glance: the vineyards around the monastery, the woods along the banks. Can be viewed and seven chapels located in different locations. In the Eastern part is the chapel of the Trinity, built no later than the twelfth century. On the lintel of the window on the North side visible trace of the kernel during the Spanish occupation of the island (XVII century), the chapel played the role of the fortress.

The nature here is magnificent. Shady pine forest, the water in the bays clean and transparent, it's nice to swim. But the monks restrict the flow of tourists: a small ferry goes only a few times a day. Smoking on the island is impossible, dress should wear modest. Anywhere you can see a sign calling for silence: the monastery is home to monks of the Cistercian observing a vow of silence.

It is this feature of the island – prevailing silence on it – and beautiful. Hard to believe that just two kilometers away are the bustling beaches of Cannes. And here buzzing bees, the wind rustling in the crowns of the bent pines. If sitting in the boat, put it in the water a hand to her rush of untamed fish. Can sometimes be found working in the vineyard of the monk. He did not utter a word, but smiling.