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Porquerolles-A nugget among the Golden Isles
The Golden Isles are three daughters of Olympian legend, the Stoechades. Porquerolles (or Proteus) was the first. For pleasure-sailors and the tourists arriving by shuttle, it is, in spite of the summer crowds, a delight to the eye and a fascinating place for those who love history, botany, and oenology.
Porquerolles was the eldest of the Stoechades. The Greeks called her Proteus, the First. Three miles from the Giens peninsula, she spreads out like a bat three km long and with a "wingspan" of seven km.
Fifteen miles from Toulon, via the Small Channel, with the Petit and the Grand Ribaud and then the Petit Langoustier outlined in a beautiful blaze, the 600-berth port welcomes boaters under the dual surveillance of the powerful Fort Sainte Agathe and its pretty wooden harbourmaster's office. Before entering the port, glance one last time towards Cap des Mèdes’ filigree of balanced rocks. Beyond that the Great Channel opens up towards Bagaud, Port-Cros, and Levant, which completes the archipelago of the Insulae Areaum, the Hyères Islands.
Located directly on the 43rd parallel—at the same latitude as the tip of Cap Corse—Porquerolles is the southernmost port of call on the Provence coast. It concentrates sailors who only come for it, while the ingrates only pass by, on the road to another "island of beauty"...
Protected from the most violent winds, the beaches and inlets of its northern face offer sailors incomparable open roadsteads. But be careful: these "Caribbean waters" cradle a steep coast—not always sheer cliffs, but still nearly inaccessible on its southern face.
While you can quickly arrive at ocean trenches on the southern side (see article), on the Hyères Bay side you remain on the continental shelf with depths of about fifty meters. The vessels destroyed by mines during the Second World War provide a large number of diving sites. The other wrecks, of wooden ships, will retain their mystery. Long ago, they discharged their loads of monks, Saracens, or pirates, as each one in their time landed here to build, pray, or pillage, and sometimes to deposit a treasure, such as the Greeks, who left the richest, most beautiful, and the most enduring treasure by planting vineyards on this highly coveted land.
But, before rushing off to the cellars of the Island's estates, say La Courtade or Perzinsky, you should also hear that a queen, Marie de Medici, was attached to Porquerolles, and that the English occupied it despite its forts made in Vauban’s style (although not actually by him).
Starting in 1912, François-Joseph Fournier, the Man from Porquerolles, Napoleon III's veterans, war widows, descendants of Lorraine natives, Italian fishermen, and children from the reformatory worked to design the village and the agricultural landscapes that you can now travel either on foot or by bicycle.
Once the boat is moored, to go swimming somewhere other than the port, or to flee the crowds in the village, you need to take your bag, good shoes, or a bike. A piece of advice: leave around eight or nine in the morning, in the cool of early day, and especially before the bulk of the 10,000 daily visitors have disembarked from the shuttle.
Porquerolles offers branching trails that allow you to discover the steep paths and rugged landscapes of the southern face, as well as the four plains and the many forts.
The pleasure-boater, by turns coaster, cyclist, or hiker thereby has the privilege of catching the glimmers of this gem of natural heritage. The majority of the island was acquired by the State in 1971 and placed under the protection of the Port-Cros National Park and the National Mediterranean Botanical Conservatory of Porquerolles. From May to October, this second organisation offers guided tours of the collection's gardens and orchards, a permanent open-air exhibit, which allows you to admire specimens of palm trees from across the world.
The vines, fig trees, and eucalyptus provide the coolness of their shade while you ascend to the forts. These military installations, built in the 16th and 17th centuries, offer a view of the Hyères harbour, always strikingly beautiful, illuminated by morning and back-lit by evening. They also beckon you to visit its history.
By discovering these marvels, you start to miss the era when it was possible to buy such a jewel for one million and one hundred francs, as François-Joseph Fournier did in an auction by candle.
