Reunion is a full Administrative Department of France and don’t you know it – the roads are all of European Motorway standard and of course by making the island a full Department and not a colony all paid for by EC funds. No need to worry about buying handicraft souvenirs either since they were all at Paris Metropolitan prices.
At 980 square miles, Reunion Island lies 500 miles east of Madagascar. The dominant feature of the island is its volcanic nature with a active volcano – Piton de la Fournaise (Snow capped) – that last erupted in 2010.
My first stop on the tour today was to a vanilla orchid farm. Although I have used vanilla pods in cooking I hadn’t realised that it is an orchid and usually grown winding up trellis or supported by a bush. Vanilla farming especially for the highest quality vanilla is a very exacting and scientific process. The flowers have to be fertilised by hand at just the right time and the pods, which look like French beans, have to be picked at just the right moment. One day too soon or one day too late can spell the difference in terms of final quality. Not all the pods are harvested at the same time from each plant, so must be checked daily for readiness.
The post harvest processing is equally protracted and exacting with several stages of drying and storing in carefully controlled conditions to allow the 40 or so chemicals to mature the flavour of the vanilla.
Reunion produces some of he highest quality vanilla in the world but it doesn’t compare in terms of volume with that of Madagascar or South America. The quality of vanilla from Reunion, however, makes it a highly prized and priced ingredient for 2 & 3 Michelin starred restaurants around the world.
The remainder of the tour was a hair-raising climb into the mountains to Cirque Salazie, along deep caldera with tall waterfalls. The scenery whilst impressive is very similar to any other volcanic terrain.
The ride up to the caldera reminded of a recent television programme in which some celebrities attempted to drive some of the most dangerous roads in the world. The roads in Reunion may be of European standard but the sheer drops on either side with impatient car drivers overtaking at the slightest opportunity made it an exciting ride.
A brief sojourn in the capital St Denis which was just one long line of clothing, shoe and jewellery shops in high humidity rounded off a rather lack lustre day – apart from the vanilla orchid farm so Reunion is not on my on my list of places to revisit.
I’m sure you have seen many pictured of waterfalls so I thought you might be interested to see vanilla pods!
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