Les Iles d'Or

Another cold day here and a temporary gap in the weather enabled me to take this image of the Golden Isles.

The group is made up of three islands and they lie about 7 miles off the coast due South of us. The largest island is Levant. It is mostly a military base to which access is prohibited. However at the western end is a wonderful bay with cafes and a nudist beach which was once quite famous for being just about the only recognised one in France.

The second island is Port cros, which has a beautiful harbour and is popular with sailors as a safe haven in bad weather.

The third island is a real gem, Porquerolles. It often features in travel guides. It is a protected island and National Park. There are no cars, fantastic restaurants and spectacular scenery. Bicycles can be hired to tour the island.

The islands have daily ferries from the mainland.

A tragic accident on Porquerolles last year featured on our national news when a young English boy was swept away in high winds. His family had arrived just a few hours earlier in the day. A massive search did not find him and a few days later his body was found. It is difficult to comprehend such a loss.

As the weather is so bad today, I posted this shot having spent a large part of the morning putting it together. For those interested, it is 11 RAW files of about 30MB each, stitched in Photoshop. The resulting file was about 2 GB!! The full image size is 84 inches by 24 inches and the detail is quite incredible. Individual boats can be seen in the bays along with waves crashing on the rocks.

To give you a better idea of what hese islands look like, I recommend viewing the panorama LARGE.

Thank you for all your comments yesterday on the bird of paradise flower