Reunion, France

After three days at sea sailing though heavy wind, fog, and rain, we looked forward to our arrival at Reunion. Fortunately, we’ve gotten our sea legs, so the rougher seas haven’t affected us. It is, however, a bit of a challenge taking a shower when the ship is being tossed from side to side. The winds have been so heavy at times the open decks have been closed to passengers.

The weather has disappointed those passengers wanting to sunbathe on the decks. Some are determined to have time on the decks regardless of the conditions. One day we looked out to see a woman on the back deck sitting in the hot tub in the pouring rain. 

Each day at noon, the captain addresses the passengers over a PA system. She gives the location of the ship, makes important announcements for passengers, and covers anything she thinks would be of interest. Recently, she said that we were sailing through the south equatorial current and talked about the large island of garbage that is floating in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It was discovered in 2010 and apparently is so large it would take six years for an item on the floating island to do a complete rotation of the mass. Fortunately, we didn’t come in contact with it on our route to Reunion.

Reunion is located 115 miles southwest of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The islands of Reunion, Mauritius, and nearby Rodrigues were named the Mascarene Islands after explorer Pedro de Mascarenhas. If you guessed he was Portuguese, you’d be right. Seeing a pattern here?

The people of Reunion, the Reunionese, are French citizens, and their official language is French. However, Creole is the everyday language used. The island is known for its scenic beauty with its lush vegetation and soaring mountains, which were formed by the volcanic activity that created the island. It still has an active volcano, Piton de la Fournaise. A major eruption in 1986 increased the size of the island. It last erupted in August 2015, and we hoped it wouldn’t hiccup while we were there.

Worth noting, Reunion is where a large piece of aircraft was recently recovered. It is thought to be from the Malaysian Airlines plane that went missing in the Indian Ocean last year.

When we arrived at Reunion about 9:00 a.m. and stepped out onto the deck, a wave of hot air and intense sunshine hit us. Suddenly those cool days of wind and fog sounded appealing.

We slathered ourselves with sunblock, grabbed wide-brimmed hats, and set out to see the island. After a long wait for the shuttle (I think half the ship decided to go at the same time), we found ourselves traveling the 30 minutes it would take us to get to St. Gilles les Bains, a seaside resort area. We had planned to travel to St. Denis, the largest city on Reunion, but the shuttle only went to St. Gilles, and the taxi fare to St. Denis was about $60 one way. A day at the beach suddenly sounded heavenly.

Cunard offered a number of very interesting sounding tours, but with John recovering from his cough, we hadn’t booked any not knowing how he would be feeling. By the time he felt better, all the tours of Reunion had been sold out. So any readers traveling to Reunion by ship in the future should book tours early. They sell out quickly.

Since Reunion is a French island, security was high (because of the recent attacks in Paris), and we were searched both coming into and leaving the dock area. Tourism on Reunion is growing, but currently most of the tourists are from France.

Us Trying to Look Like French Tourists (and failing)

Along the wide motorway we traveled, we passed soaring mountains with wide fissures (gorges, canyons, valleys, or whatever they call the breaks in the mountains here). Houses appeared well up into the mountains, some awfully close to the edges of those gorges.

We also passed beautiful flowering shrubs, interesting architecture, large billboards (some recruiting for the French Navy), new and used car showrooms and, unfortunately, lots of graffiti—a sad blight on a beautiful island. The local fast food restaurant chain is appropriately called “Quick,” and a building supply store (like Home Depot), is called “Mr. Bricolag.” Cities and towns across the world are becoming so much alike.

Like most seaside towns, the roads leading into the beach area were backed up with bumper-to-bumper traffic—everyone trying to get to the sand and surf. After all, it was summer here.

The beach was a short distance from where the shuttle dropped us off. We came upon the local post office unexpectedly and stopped for some stamps. We found postcards nearby, wrote them out and mailed them then and there. It couldn’t have been easier than that. Most times we find ourselves trying to find cards, and then asking locals where we can find a post office for stamps. We forgot to bring along our address book, so we won’t be sending out many cards. So, to all our family and friends, “Hello from Reunion.”

Close by, we found a lovely outdoor café right at the water’s edge and stopped for a beer for John and a cappuccino for me. It was a pleasure to sit under an umbrella and enjoy cool ocean breezes on such a hot day and take time to appreciate the beautiful scenery. It was an area enjoyed by locals, and we watched children playing in the surf.

St. Gilles appears to be a beautiful beach for swimming, with a safe area in the water roped off. Although there wasn’t a beach house to change, a public restroom (toilet) is next to the post office and, in a pinch, could be used to change clothes.

Seafront of St. Gilles les Bains

 

When we got up to leave, I stumbled on a cement block holding up the umbrella at our table and reached out to steady myself. The thing I grabbed to keep from falling ended up being the bare back of the man sitting behind me. Not the best way to get to know the locals, especially that well.

We walked on a long covered wooden bridge that connected one area of the beach to another and down several of the side streets. The vehicles parked along the roadside were an interesting mix of French cars and a lone Chevrolet.

Covered Bridge

It was getting hotter with each hour. We walked back to the main road in town intending to visit the nearby church, which had an unusual bell tower. As we approached it, we saw the air-conditioned shuttle waiting nearby. We looked at the church, then at the shuttle. The shuttle won out.

Church and Bell Tower

Later at dinner, two of our tablemates, Beverly and John, retired teachers from California, told us about the tour they had opted for—traveling to the crater of an ancient volcano (not the active one). After a long trek along winding roads to a mountain top 7,000 feet above sea level, they arrived at the crater to find it covered in thick fog—they saw nothing. They were quite disappointed, especially after that long ride. We’ve discovered that fog is a condition that you frequently run into along coastlines with mountains, especially on islands. We’re glad we ended up at the beach.

Tomorrow, the Republic of Mauritius