Draguignan

Draguignan (dʁaɡiɲɑ̃; Draguinhan) is a commune in the Var department in the administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (formerly Provence), southeastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department and self-proclaimed "capital of Artillery" and "Porte du Verdon". The city is from Saint-Tropez, and from Nice. According to legend, the name of the city is derived from the Latin name "Draco/Draconem" (dragon): a bishop, called Saint Hermentaire, killed a dragon and saved people. The Latin motto of Draguignan is Alios nutrio, meos devoro (I nourish others, I devour my own). The elevation is 200 m. The highest hill near Draguignan is Malmont (551 m). The main river near Draguignan is the Nartuby. The city is set in a valley NW-SE, about wide. Draguignan's climate is the same as the normal conditions of the Mediterranean climate. The nights of frost are rare and the negative temperatures occur only a few days a year. Thus the winters are mild and wet, and the summers warm and dry, the town is protected from the winds by the Malmont and the western massif of the Selves. During the summer the precipitation is extremely low whereas autumn is subjected to frequent rains. The hills downstream of Draguignan date from the Middle Triassic, while those that rise upstream belong to the Upper Triassic. Up North, we can see a long bar of stony plateau, with summits made of Jurassic limestones, sometimes intersected by deep canyons. This northern region of the "baous" or also called massive mountainous barriers, deeply wrinkled and fractured, reveals successive basins in the east–west direction. Draguignan is in a zone of moderate risk of seismicity. There is no highway going through the city of Draguignan but the town is directly connected by the D 1555 to a major highway, the A8. A bypass route makes it possible to avoid the city center from the south when arriving from Trans-en-Provence and to get to the hospital in the north of the city more quickly.