Reunion by Nigel Tisdall
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10,000 miles from Paris, there is a corner of the Indian Ocean that is forever France. Lying idly between Madagascar and Mauritius, the tropical island of Réunion is one of those strange morceaux of French culture that gets listed in the phonebook under DOM-TOM - Les Départements et les Territoires d'Outre-Mer. Almost exclusively visited by French holidaymakers, these nevertheless offer all the usual benefits of a holiday to France - first class food, a chic and civilised lifestyle, boules and baguettes - but with an exotic setting.
Billed as "l'Île intense", Réunion is a cluster of volcanic peaks and craters veined with long, corkscrewing roads that climb up to cool, almost Alpine, plateaux dotted with mountain villages where the tricolour is still fluttering with pride above the mairie. Curiosity is one reason to come here, for it seems crazy that such a remote island should still be so umbilically linked to Europe. When you arrive, you simply flash your EU passport and that was Immigration.
When you go to get your luggage trolley, you discover everyone else has brought a 10 franc coin to release them. In the supermarkets, the prices are in Euros. In the Office de Tourisme, walkers are asking about booking gîtes and the best Grande Randonnée. As for the traffic on the N1 circling the coast, it is typical French, up-your-bum racetrack madness.
Why? Well, the French got here in 1646 and never really left - today's 700,000 Réunionnais are a Creole soup originally mixed from African slaves, indentured Asian labourers, French exiles and colonists. Since 1946 the island has been an overseas département, and if anyone suggests this is absurd it won't be long before a coffee-coloured Gallic finger points to the British in the Falklands, or the Americans in Hawaii.
The real wonder is how the French have managed to keep such a spectacular island to themselves for so long. Snow sometimes dusts the cap of Piton de Neige, Réunion's highest point at 10,066ft. This sits at the heart of three massive, steep-walled craters known as cirques. Many visitors come purely to trek up and around these on well-marked paths, and the island has a reputation as a venue for adventurous sports such as canyoning, hang-gliding, mountain biking and microlight flights.
A sure way to appreciate this scenic magnificence is on a helicopter flight, which is worth it despite the extortionate price and the early start needed to beat the clouds that gather above the island as the morning progresses. After fluttering over fields of sugar cane and
geranium farms (grown for perfume), the earth suddenly drops away to massed screams as you cross over the sheer rim of the Cirque de Matafe. Réunion's helicopter pilots seem to have little English and even less fear - we flew right inside a narrow green ravine known as Trou de Fer, passing waterfalls that fell down the mountainsides like gushing silver, watching the branches of trees bend unsettlingly low as our rotor blades swished past.
As an added bonus, Réunion also has an active volcano, Piton de la Fournaise, which can be admired from several viewpoints along a Route de Volcan or climbed by the intrepid. This erupted as recently as 1986, leaving tell-tale streams of black lava trailing down to the sea like a toddler who has just guzzled a bar of chocolate. Cyclones can be another dramatic effect (avoid February and March).
Réunion does have some sandy beaches, but they are not of the magical, honeymoon-calibre class you find on other Indian Ocean Islands. This is a place more for drinking in great landscapes, a crumb of France that will appeal to people who like to walk and tour by hire car. Creole food, spiced with ginger, coconut and vanilla, can be delicious, but the gastronomic stars go to the quayside restaurants devoted to Indian Ocean fish and seafood. Lobster, crayfish, tuna, swordfish - the menus are inevitably backed by an excellent selection of French white wines, and sometimes there is even a patronne with a petit chien under her arm.
After several days of such fun and exploration, the smart thing to do is crash out on the nearby island of Mauritius, which is only a 30 minute flight to the east. Here you will find palm-fringed beaches, luxury hotels, tip-top service - and sensible English-speaking people who drive on the left.