Îles du Frioul

A few hundred metres west of the Château d’If are the Ratonneauand Pomègues. The tiny islands (each about 2.5km long) were linked by a dyke in the 1820s. From the 17th to 19th centuries they were used to quarantine those suspected of carrying plague or cholera: the city was ravaged by plague in 1720, when a merchant vessel carrying the disease broke quarantine to avoid losing its shipment. The resultant epidemics killed around 50,000 of the city’s 90,000 inhabitants. The island of Ratonneau has ruins of the old yellow-fever quarantine hospital. Seabirds and rare plants thrive on the islands, which also have uncrowded beaches.

Boats to Château d’If also serve the Îles du Frioul (€10 return, 35 minutes).