Local time: January 26, 2014
Full-scale sightseeing will begin on this day, the 26th.
After having breakfast at the hotel, we took a short walk around the city of Sandoni. It was already over 30 degrees at 8 o’clock in the morning. It’s so hot, I can’t imagine because Japan is in the middle of winter.
Here in Sandtoni is the capital and prefectural capital of Reunion Island.
This is City Hall.
You can reach this kind of coastline in a few minutes from the hotel.
The sky is blue, and it’s tropical!
Roland-Garros Airport, the gateway to Reunion Island, is located on the outskirts of this city, and I took a hotel in this city on the arrival day because of the late night flight.
The name « Roland-Garros » is famous as the venue of the French Open, one of the four major tennis tournaments. Roland-Garros is the name of a person, actually an aviator from this Reunion Island.
There is a bronze statue of him near the beach in the city of Sandoni.
This is the northern end of Sandoni, and the remains of cannons that may have been used in the past can still be seen here.
After walking around for less than an hour, I returned to the hotel and checked out. I took a taxi back to the airport and went to rent a car for the next four days.
The car rental office complex is located right in front of the airport exit.
The company we used was called CITER.
Is it a local car rental company? I chose this place because it had the best conditions I could find online.
I think the process of renting was very smooth.
Of course, we have all the major companies like Hertz, Avis and Europcar.
Now we got it, Citroen C3! Finally, my first Citroen.
Even though I had specified it, it has been a different car model many times before and I am very happy.
The ride is good and the interior space is fine. As for driving, the suspension is satisfactory, the steering wheel area is a little loose. I think the steering wheel area is fine once you get used to it.
The first place we headed to after getting the car was El Bul in the valley of Sarajee.
El Bourg is known for its Creole architecture and Creole-style houses, and has been recognized as one of the most beautiful villages in France.
Yes, this is the main reason why I came to this island. By visiting this place, I will finally be able to conquer all 158 beautiful villages in France, which I have been doing since 2010.
It takes about 50 minutes from the airport to El Bour. It’s a bit of a mountainous drive, but it’s a straight road to the village, so it’s easy to get there without getting lost…or so I thought.
What a huge traffic jam.
I waited for about half an hour and there was no sign of any movement.
Apparently the road in front of us is blocked. They won’t let me visit easily at the last minute…
But after another 30 minutes of waiting, the line of cars finally started to move.
Now we can finally reach the last beautiful village, but there is another traffic jam….
In the meantime, I photographed the scenery of the Sarajee Valley.
Fortunately, this traffic jam was cleared in about 10 minutes.
Apparently, it was caused by a traffic control due to a landslide that happened just up the road.
It was scary because there were rocks lying around that were bigger than the vehicle itself…
The rest of the day went smoothly, and although there were some unforgiving inclines in the mountains, we arrived at the last and most beautiful village in France, El Bourg, about an hour behind schedule.
I will report in detail in the form of « The Most Beautiful Villages in France » as usual. Please look forward to it.
We decided to have lunch in this village. It was Sunday and most of the shops were closed, but we had a local dish at the only hotel restaurant which was open.
It seems to be a dish called Rougail, which simply put is a spice stew. To put it more simply, it is a curry stew.
By the way, this Reunion Island is a vanilla producing area, and this duck rougaille was cooked with vanilla. The strange flavor and taste was impressive.
It goes great with rice, Thai rice!
I forgot to take a picture of it, but the pineapple chili sauce that came with it was very tasty. It was my first experience. I think I’ll buy some chili sauce and try it when I go back to Japan.
We ended up staying in El Boulle for almost two hours and then moved on to St. Pierre, a town on the southwest side of the island where we would be staying for the next four nights.
It only takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes to go around the island, even though it is more than half way around the island.
By the way, it only takes an hour to go halfway around the island from Saint Denis to Saint Pierre, the northernmost part of the island.
With a break on the way, we went to St. Pierre.
We arrived at the hotel we had arranged outside of St. Pierre at about 5:00 PM.
After checking in and relaxing in the room for a bit, we took a 10-minute walk into town.
It was just dusk.
Afterwards, we had a light meal and returned to the hotel to go to bed.
明日はもう一つのハイライト。ヘリコプターツアーです。天気はどうなるのか…。(続く)
