Porquerolles (; oc, Porcairòlas), also known as the Île de Porquerolles, is an island in the

Îles d'Hyères The Îles d'Hyères (), also known as Îles d'Or (), are a group of four Mediterranean islands off Hyères in the Var department of Southeastern France. Islands With a combined area of , the Îles d'Hyères consist of *Porquerolles – , ...

Var Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var (department), a department of France * Var (river), France * Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran * Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (; or , ; commonly shortened to PACA; en, Provence-Alps-French Riviera, italic=yes; also branded as Région Sud) is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, the far southeastern on the mainland. Its pref ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Its land area is and in 2004, its population has benn about 200. Porquerolles, the largest and most westerly of the Îles d'Hyères, is about long by wide, with five small ranges of hills. The south coast is lined with cliffs, and on the north coast are the port and the beaches of Notre Dame, La Courtade and Plage d'Argent.

History

Porquerolles vue du ciel - Anse de la Courtade

The island's village was established in 1820, with its lighthouse constructed in 1837 and church in 1850. The entire island was purchased in 1912 by

François Joseph Fournier François Joseph Fournier (December 6, 1857 - January 13, 1935) was a self-taught Belgian adventurer and entrepreneur who explored Mexico and the island of Porquerolles. He was born into a family of modest means, in Clabecq, Belgium and died on ...

, apparently as a wedding present for his wife; he planted of

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

s, which produced a wine that was among the first to be classified as ''vin des Côtes de Provence''. In 1971, the state bought 80 percent of the island to preserve it from development. Much of the island is now part of a national park (the '' Port-Cros Parc National'') and nature conservation area ('' Conservatoire botanique national méditerranéen de Porquerolles''). Porquerolles is the setting for

Georges Simenon Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (; 13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer. He published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, and was the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret. Early life and education ...

's novels ' ("The Mahe Circle") (1946) and ' (''My Friend Maigret'') (1949) and for the 1964 novel ''Valparaiso'' by

Nicolas Freeling Nicolas Freeling (born Nicolas Davidson; 3 March 1927 – 20 July 2003), was a British crime novelist, best known as the author of the "Van der Valk" series of detective novels. A television series based on the character was produced for the Brit ...

. Some scenes of the film '' Pierrot le fou '', by Jean-Luc Godard (1965) were filmed in Porquerolles. Since 2010, the island also hosts a jazz festival each summer ("Jazz à Porquerolles").

Climate

Porquerolles has a

hot-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Csa''). The average annual temperature in Porquerolles is . The average annual rainfall is with November as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in February, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Porquerolles was on 7 August 2003; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 2 February 1956.

Points of interest

* Conservatoire botanique national méditerranéen de Porquerolles * Port-Cros Parc National

References

Site officiel de Porquerolles

Port-Cros Parc National
Îles d'Hyères Landforms of Var (department) Populated places established in 1820 Tourist attractions in Var (department) French Riviera Mediterranean islands Islands of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur {{Var-geo-stub