You have just reached the Mediterranean coast and you can’t wait to get back to the sea. After leaving your luggage, you go out for a walk in order to reach the hidden cove which you visit at least one visit every year (your little secret). More than water, you may be looking for the maquis and its aromatic scent that you missed in winter...

Juniper, lavender, sage, myrtle, laurel and cypress bushes, rosemary... all these shrubs are woody variants of the maquis.

Its smell is characterized by dry wood notes that remind us of the full summer duck, when we hear cicadas singing on the background and the landscape appears liquified as the heat wave increases.

Both arid and green, the landscape hosting the maquis has inspired many singers and artists, such as the Italian poet Eugenio Montale (1896-1981), who describes the landscape of the Italian Riviera as follows:

"To pass noon, pale and thoughtful, 
near a hot orchard wall, 
to listen among thorns and twigs 
snaps of blackbirds, hisses of snakes.
In the cracks in the soil or on the vetch 

to spy the rows of red ants 
now breaking and now intertwining 
at the head of tiny chariots..."