Apologies for the crude attempt at humour with the pork rolls picture today, but we have spent the day in one of the most beautiful parts of France that I have been, no chateaus, no castles, no fine foods ( well some), no chic people just simple, pure unadulterated natural beauty in a region known as “le trois isles”, one of the first marine National parks in Europe.  Access to the island of Porquerolles was a 15 minute ferry ride from la Tour fondue, where we are staying,  to a bustling port at the only village of the island.  Porquerolles is one of a tiny three island chain off the mainland. One of them is difficult to access and one is a nudist colony so I wasn’t allowed to go !, so Porqurolles it was!

Being the largest of 3 three islands, measuring 7km by 3 km and a population of 200 people, it was bought by a Belgian explorer , François Fournier , in 1912 as a wedding present for his wife – you’ve got to hate men that do that, what’s wrong with a ring and a night down the pub ?.  I can see why though, a mixture of cypress and eucalyptus, creating a heady scent as we got off the ferry and walked to the finest beach on the island, la plage de Notre Dame, the morning sun glistening off the gin clear water of the Mediterranean Sea.

    

With nothing to disturb the silence, apart from the waves gently lapping at the shore there was plenty of time to imagine and dream, even the gulls were at one with the world, gently bobbing up and down on the, mostly tideless Med.

   

The island appeared to be relaxing and was without a care in the world until………

 

Whilst I appreciate that sometime these pages can just seem to be a collection of holiday snaps, which is one of its aims, but also I am a seeker of knowledge and feel edgy if I havn’t asked why ?, how? or what? at least once when I’m away in a different land. I often find myself trying to mentally calculate the volume of a room, or trying to determine the height of a tree, this doesn’t make me boring …it makes me interesting (doesn’t it ?) despite the protestations of those around me !! . These last few days I have been (effectively) discouraged from trying to calculate the time that an onshore breeze will convert to an offshore wind.  Anyway I digress, before I can accurately predict when you click off this page.

Today, I noticed something I have never noticed before !.  Along the shores of the area we are in there appear to be untidy looking piles of debris, washed on the shoreline, and these can be quite big.

  

Clearly plant material, I wondered whether it could be leaves or bark from the trees along the shore, but it wasn’t until I got access to 3G signal could I start my search for the info.  It turns out, that these are the leaves from a marine grass, Latin name Posidonia oceanica, also called Neptune grass or Mediterranian tapegrass. It is only found in exceptionally clean water and while its leaves break off and gather at the shore, they play an important role in slowing down erosion.  Now this is the bit I find really interesting ( sorry, perhaps I am boring after all !) but since it grows from the centre outwards through rhizomes, or underground stems, forming a mat,  it is a clonal plant.  One colony,  South of Ibiza, measured 5 miles across, and was probably over 100,000 years old and is probably the oldest living thing on earth !  Isn’t nature great 🙂

Anyway, before you all get bored and wander off, here is a pretty picture of some flowers !

 

Tomorrow, be definitely start our journey North, and will be in Burgundy by sunset, I wish you a very good night, wherever you are.

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