The Idyllic Porquerolles Island

The Porquerolles Island lies off the French south east coast near the cities of Toulon and Hyeres.  Friends of ours from Cape Town, Pascal and Laetitia Riera, have spent many years at the Porquerolles and every year when they head home to France, they spend some time there.  We were lucky to be in France (with Laetitia's mum Annie) at the same time that they were heading out to the island, so we escaped out there for a couple of days for some island living.

Lucy, Pascal and Laetitia

The island has a small population of around 450 people in winter and about 6000 visitors per day in the summer season.  There is a small town on the island, a few vineyards and olive orchards and some holiday accommodation, but for the most part, the island is a nature reserve and visitors hire bicycles or walk around the island.  The main attractions are the warm, clear water with excellent diving and the white sandy beaches.  There are also a few black sandy beaches and the southern (Mediterranean) side of the island is steep and rocky.  The island is strategic in protecting the French Mediterranean waters and over the years many forts were built on the island, the most recent being just after World War 2.  They are now all disused or converted - one we visited is now a monastery.

Porquerolle Marina with the mainland in the background.

Beautiful beaches on the north side of the island

Steep and rocky calques (fjords) on the southern side of the island

Plage Noir - the black beach - with a fort in the background.

Enjoying the sunset on a shelly beach.

Pascal and Laetitia stay every year with some friends of theirs, and we were blown away by Tristin and Virginie's generosity.  They have a small flat in town and then rent a cabin just outside the town, and we stayed out there.  It was lovely to have no lights around and be right on the water's edge.

The cabin that we stayed in.

Sunset fun and games

Lucy jumping for a change....

 Tristin and Virginie lent us bicycles and we cycled all over the island.

The summer colours are fantastic!

Heading off for the day - baguette-in-bag

Lucy and Laetitia admiring the view over the vineyards. 

We cycled up to the highest point on the island - the semaphore tower.  The view was fantastic from up there.

There are plenty of forts to explore.

Another beautiful beach

Plage Notre Dame - the longest beach on the island with fantastic clear water for swimming.

YES!!!! sunshine and warm water!

Lunch and a swim.  What more could one ask for?

The steep rocky shore on the more exposed side of the island.

Sunrise is worth waking up for at 5:30am..... 

.....especially when you have tea and can enjoy the 1h30 light spectacular!

A traditional fishing boat heading back to harbour after checking the night's nets.

Virginie is employed by the Porquerolles Municipality to work in a team to clean the litter off the beaches and paths.  We were very impressed with how clean the island looks despite the number of visitors every day, so they obviously do a fantastic job.  We joined her one morning as we thought it was a great excuse to get out and walk many of the beaches in the early morning.

The glamorous side of being a rubbish-man!?!

Right-Sergeant Rubbish Buster Geoff on Plage Blanche.

Rubbish Buster wars with Laetitia and Geoff at odds.

Thank you so much Tristin, Virginie and Tahaa for opening your houses to us - we really had a fantastic time.  Pascal and Laetitia - our official unofficial local tour guides - this was definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far.

Just about to board the ferry back to the mainland.

Post script

Back on the mainland the temperature was a good couple of degrees warmer, and as we'd hot-footed it through the cities to miss traffic, we stopped in a little town to find ice creams.  Alas! there was no shop to be found that sold them.  We even tried a supermarket, but they only sold them in boxes of 6....... so, with no choices left, we bought a box and handed the extras out to people in the parking lot! The french are certainly a gracious lot! At least we got our cornetto ice creams though.

Geoff can multi-task despite reports on the contrary...