Îlet Oscar is one of eight islets of the town of François. It would be the result of a lava flow more or less brecciated intersected of intrrusions. Oval in shape, it rises to 40 meters above sea level. It has sandy coves long of 100 to 150 meters, wide and fitted with fine white sand.
It was once called Viviès islet from the name of the former mayor of François from 1923 to 1935, Auguste Viviès who lived there for a long time at his second home.
White backgrounds present between the islet Oscar and Thierry are commonly called "Baignoire de Joséphine" because of the false rumor stating that Josephine de Beauharnais, the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte used to swim there. In fact, it has this name because the president of the Nautical Club of François had used to ride to rest and drink the punch with his friends in the area aboard his skiff that bore the name "Josephine". The false rumor was taken by tourism providers thereafter.
The vegetation is heterogeneous. It is a mixture of grassland herbabées, discontinuous and arbrusifs small and small forests of pears tree and manchineel trees. This islet is irrelevant particular fauna.
Just as other François islets, Îlet Oscar is protected by the Coastal Law of 1986 and is subject to a prefectural order of biotope protection (PDB) to preserve the lore and fault characteristics such as red gum trees, the manchineel tree, pear trees and rarest plant areas such as local mulberry tree and the wood-milk.
This is the islet of Francois accusing the highest daily attendance. It is 100 to 200 people per day in high tourist season pérode (mid-November early April). During the summer holidays is almost 300 to 350 people and 700 people during the Easter and Pentecost weekend.
The visitors are mostly made up of tourists and sometimes local.
It is possible to visit the Îlet Oscar. Several companies offer travels to the islet in particular white backgrounds that border it and offer you the "Ti-punch" or "Planteur" feet in the water while swimming in the bathtub Josephine. The most famous business is that of Albert Mongin. This Franciscan (inhabitant of François) started to offer tours of the island for over 1980 years on a single skiff. Today it has several boats featured with capacities from 75 to 80 people.
The islet nevertheless remains overfished and in advanced degradation. Measures are needed to preserve it as prohibiting access pets to foster peace in these volatile species, replant the islet, deny access to visitors and users of the northernmost side of the islet in particular.