A Gallic taste of paradise

Such were my thoughts when standing at the southern tip of the most farflung corner of France, l'Ile de la Réunion, which as a fully-fledged dèpartement is also part of the EU.

A pair of white Tropic Birds patrolled the jagged volcanic coastline under a hot tropical sun. Spray rose from waves that had travelled unimpeded across the Indian Ocean from as far away as Antarctica or Australia before they broke against the lava cliffs at Cap Méchant, the "wicked cape" which sailors learned to avoid.

And yet, although I was some 6,000 miles south-east of Paris, what was going on around me was both unmistakeably French - and yet strangely exotic.

It was Sunday lunchtime, and typically extended families (grandparents and children included, naturellement) were enjoying le picnic. Amplified concertina music emanated from a nearby bar. Those who had finished eating were either playing le bingo (using scraps of volcanic rock to mark their scorecards) or enjoying a game of pètanque beneath the shade offered by a grove of pandanus trees.

I had learned much about this strange-looking palm with its aerial buttress roots - which had been introduced to La Réunion from the East Indies - from a splendidly mustachioed gentleman called Guyllelm Boyer over lunch. In fact, he had served me a delicious dish of boucanèe (the home-smoked belly pork that kept "buccaneers" going on their sea voyages) cooked with pandanus fruit - or pin pins, as they are known in the local Creole language.

Monsieur Boyer was deeply respectful of the pandanus. It acted as a windbreak for more fragile plants; the leaves were used for thatch and discouraged cockroaches. In fact, every part of the plant had its uses. His restaurant, Les Pins Pins, was named after them.

Seeking out every possible use of the profusion of plants that grow in the rich volcanic soil of this lush, tropical island is a local obsession. The Réunionnais extract essential oils from both indigenous plants such as the "Yellow Flower", which grows high up the volcano, and exotics including the tamarind, geranium or vanilla, and use them for making medicines, perfumes, and in their distinctive French Creole cuisine.

This combines influences from Africa and India - whence the French planters brought first slaves and then indentured labourers to work the island's sugar cane - as well as from le mètropole, which is how locals refer to mainland France. So they produce their own Creole variants of curry (known as le kari) using a locally grown and exceptionally sweet-tasting variety of turmeric that they call "local saffron".

But for me the highlight was duck cooked with vanilla pods, a sublime combination which suggests the Réunionnais developed "fusion food" long before it became a global trend.

Hardly surprising, given that the mingling of French, Indian and African over three centuries has made this island home to a truly "rainbow" nation.

And they use only homegrown Bourbon-vanilla, the most prized and expensive-in the world. You eat far better - and at competitive prices - on Réunion than on most "tropical paradise" islands. My days started with a breakfast of perfect croissants and pain au chocolat, locally grown papaya, lychees and "Victoria" pineapple, with maybe a dollop of fromage frais, while sitting by a pool with frangipani and flame trees in blossom. From where things moved, quite literally, upwards.

That is because Réunion is a not just a beach-flop destination. Of course it has its coral reefs and lagoons and white sand beaches on the drier west coast, where most of the hotels are situated. But it is the island's rugged, mountainous and stunningly beautiful interior that sets it apart. As you ascend on roads lined with scarlet poinsettia and blue-flowering jacaranda trees, the canefields give way to giant bamboo and tree ferns. Higher still you enter a landscape reminiscent of the Auvergne, with lush pastures where Limousin cattle graze. There are forests of Japanese pine (from which an essential oil is extracted), then bonsai-like flowering bushes, until you arrive at the volcano's lip and are confronted by what can only be described as a moonscape.

This is the Piton de la Fornaise, one of the world's most active volcanoes. Only last April it erupted and poured tons of molten lava into the sea, cutting off the island's coastal road. This had just been reopened, and when I stopped in the lava flow, I could feel the heat seeping through the solidified magma.

Happily, the larger of the island's two volcanoes is officially dormant. Its rim rises to nearly 10,000ft above sea level and, although La Réunion lies well within the tropics, it is sometimes covered in snow during the southern winter (hence its name, Piton des Neiges.)

The three caldera of this massive volcano collapsed in on themselves, leaving today a dramatic landscape of jagged ridges, near vertical cliffs, multiple waterfalls with poetic names such as The Wedding Veil, and deep gorges cloaked in luxuriant vegetation.

Roads can penetrate only two of these natural amphitheatres or cirques. The third, the Cirque de Mafate, can be reached only on foot or by helicopter, and the 750 inhabitants, descended from runaway slaves and white smallholders, are an independent-minded lot.

I only looked down at their isolated hamlets during a white-knuckle helicopter tour, though I did make it to Cirque de Salazie where I ate mountain sausage, drank flavoured rums with a local artist, and learned much of the island's colonial past from the aptly named Monsieur Folio, who opens his historic house and gardens at Hell-Bourg to curious visitors.

La Réunion has long been a favourite winter-sun destination among the more adventurous French. They go there for the stupendous hiking, white-water rafting, surfing, deep-sea fishing, scuba diving, paragliding throughout the year (visibility and winds permitting), horse-trekking up volcanoes - and, of course, the Creole food and culture, which is both French and exotic.

For decades they have kept it a secret. Indeed, the only Englishman I bumped into was a barman who had come to the island with his Réunionnaise girlfriend. Previously, long flight times and transfers made it hard to reach but now rapid check-in at London City airport and a connecting flight from Paris Orly mean it is just an overnight flight away. Much the same as any other tropical paradise, in fact. Though this one has a Gallic twist.

WAY TO GO
Air France (0870 1424343, www.airfrance.co.uk) has daily flights from London City airport to Paris Orly, connecting to Réunion. Returns from £625.