Île de Porquerolles Favorites

Favorite thing: Olive trees. The islanders - or some of them at least - take great interest in the preservation of rare species of olive trees. Here's where they have collected these trees, in a central valley on the island.

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Favorite thing: The first photo gives the most typical aspect of the island with thorny bushes 2-3 m tall that hide narrow paths. The one shown on the photo is a large one!

The second photo gives a bird's eye view of the bushes cover. The path are completely hidden and cannot be seen!

The third photo gives another typical aspect with a few pine trees. They are never very large. The photo shows Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pine), the most common on the island but there are also some alleys with Pinus pinea (Stone Pine)

The last photo shows an old Eucalyptus globulus, another species of trees found on the island.

http://www.portcrosparcnational.fr/actualites/parcnational/

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Favorite thing: One of the duties of the Conservatoire Botanique National Méditerranéen de Porquerolles is to preserve biodiversity, not only of wild plants but also of cultivated ones. On that account, they have an orchard with a collection of more than a hundred different species of fig trees. Our guide from the Conservatoire allowed us to taste the figs, which, in September, were fully ripe. Some were purplish, other greenish or even whitish. All were very tasty but with an amazing variety of tastes. We would never have expected that figs could taste so diverse! Biodiversity is for real!

Favorite thing: Porquerolles, the lighthouse, 12 May 2010. Much to our disappointment we found this building closed to the public until further notice "par decision administrative".