Porquerolles, the largest and most westerly of the Îles d'Hyères, is about 7 km (4.3 miles) long by 3 km (1.9 miles) 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
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, apparently as a wedding present for his wife; he planted 200 hectares (500 acres) of vineyards, which produced a wine that was among the first to be classified as vin des Côtes de Provence.
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 (Köppen climate classificationCsa). The average annual temperature in Porquerolles is 16.8 °C (62.2 °F). The average annual rainfall is 605.7 mm (23.85 in) with November as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.8 °C (76.6 °F), and lowest in February, at around 10.3 °C (50.5 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded in Porquerolles was 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on 7 August 2003; the lowest temperature ever recorded was −10.0 °C (14.0 °F) on 2 February 1956.
Climate data for Porquerolles (1991–2020 averages, extremes 1949–present)
^"Porquerolles (83)"(PDF). Fiche Climatologique: Statistiques 1991–2020 et records (in French). Meteo France. Archived from the original(PDF) on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2018.