5 : Triolet is home to the island’s largest Hindu temple, built in the late nineteenth century. Triolet abrite le plus grand temple hindou de l’île, bâti à la fin du XIXe siècle. 6 : Domes marked with the trident and lotus flower, emblems of Shiva. Dômes piqués par le trident et la fleur de lotus, emblèmes de Shiva. 7 : In Anse la Raie, improvised altars on the lagoon dedicated to Hanuman, the god of wisdom. À Anse-la-Raie, des autels improvisés sur le lagon dédiés à Hanuman, le dieu de la sagesse. catamarans and organise excursions to neighbouring islands. Yesterday’s “camps” have become today’s boutiques. What remains unchanged is the street food stalls selling traditional dishes such as dholl puri, farata, cane juice and preserved pineapple. After Bain Boeuf beach (which, as the name suggests, is where cows once bathed), the road once again has sea views. And soon, around a bend, a small miracle comes into view: the flamboyant roof of Notre-Dame Auxiliatrice Church, consecrated in 1938, known for its joyful Sunday masses. We are at Cap Malheureux (meaning “Cape Misfortune”, so called because it was here that the French surrendered to the English when they landed in 1810). Opposite, the ocean is dotted with dusty volcanic islets. Ilot Gabriel, Flat Island (with a difficult past as a quarantine station for thousands of Indian “conscripts”), Round Island (which isn’t round), Serpent Island (which has no reptiles) and the emblematic Coin de Mire – an outpost for French soldiers (there are remains of cannons here) ; today the island is a nature reserve and the habitat for the white-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus), the jewel of the Mascarene Islands. THE EAST COAST Continuing eastwards, the landscape narrows into coves of white sand. The jagged basalt rock shoreline slopes down to the mangrove that muffles the murmur of the lagoon. Anse la Raie (on the mirror lagoon, a small altar dedicated to Hanuman, the god of wisdom), Grand Gaube (the return of the silent pirogues to Ferries Post) is a place of peace and quiet. In the direction of Goodlands, in the middle of sugar cane are the remains of the colonial sugar 6 7
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