We flew with Air Mauritius, and even though we had treated ourselves to business class we weren't expecting much. However we were pleasantly surprised with spacious in-capsule seats, excellent food with French wines and local rum cocktails and flavoured rum liqueurs. Even a good in flight entertainment package.
We had a very scenic fly-over of Mauritius before landing. Looks like fun exploring when we return in late October.
We landed in Reunion at Saint-Denis, the capital on the north coast of the island.
We are staying and the somewhat basic, but well located Hotel Central...and that's more than the fact that it is also next to a great patisserie.
We spent the morning exploring. Some lovely architecture, including some magificent old staley houses, most from the 19th century...
The Hotel de Ville...
The cathedral..
A colourful street scene..
A nice waterfront promenade, although a stone beach and churned up water..
We had lunch with the locals..
..and sampled the local beer, officially Bourbon, but affectionately known as a Dodo...not sure if that is because after it is drunk it is "as dead as a ..." - sorry about that.
Curiously, a lot of the shops are closed Monday mornings, so it was out again in the afternoon to explore again. Highlight was Le Grand Market. Amazing colours and great prices. Too early in the trip for serious buying but it turned out a lot of the stuff came from Madagascar......watch this space.
The maps are so helpful - I didn't realise that the archipelago was that far north. Loving the colour and colonial architecture and can't wait to see what wonderful creatures lie off the shore. Congratulations for a wonderful start!
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