i think the only reason it's taken me so long to write this section of the journey is because i spent two glorious weeks with danielle in PARADISE and so much crazy shit went down. i don't think i could ever forget this trip. i'll give the top highlights and probably post pictures later, get ready ready for a wild ride!
geez, this does feel like forever ago now though. first of all, can we just talk about the fucking journey it takes to GET to réunion!?! it started off on april fool's day, when i got the train from dijon at 13h59 arriving to gare de lyon at 15h37. from there it's a quick RER ride out to CDG airport. checked my self in and got through security and just about pee'd myself in excitement! the plane FINALLY left at 19h45 that night and then i realized what i was in for... almost 11 hours of flying time, mon dieu! the flight was totally worth it when the tiny little remote island finally came into sight! you could watch the landing from beneath the plane on your personal tv, and you saw nothing but water until SPLIT SECONDS before the plane touches the ground. so wild! my impatience was INDESCRIBABLE while i had to wait for my luggage before i could out and find mrs. graham standing there waiting. pants were stripped off immediately in the airport parking lot, no shame here, it's hot as fuck on this island!! and then the adventure began.
as per my request our first stop was of course, the beach. danielle carefully picked which one to start me off with and we headed to La Saline-les-Bains et L'Hermitage (yes, i am actually going to name ALL of the beaches we went to while i was there, it was like a sick obsession for us) after giving my pasty ass white skin a good dosing of spf 7000 we hit up the sand and chowed down on american/french hamburgers (basically a hamburger on a baguette)
we decided it would be a good idea to head to danielle's place to drop off my stuff and check it out before headin off to pick up the gremlins, mathilde and raphael, from school and take them to trampoline lessons in St. Paul. we walked around the black sand beach (Baie de Saint-Paul) and peeped around the market at all the cool stuff they were selling.
huh. turns out i stopped writing about this day in my journal and just ended it with the fact that i ate head cheese at dinner and it was disgusting and that danielle and i admired the stars for hours after dinner looking up at the magnificent view of the crystal clear stars before i quickly passed out in my tent in the yard hahaha
samedi, avril 3 : took the gremlins to Trou d'Eau and hung out with them on the beach and ate lunch and then took the kids home and danielle and i went to wander around St. Paul, it was sooooo beyond hot though i could almost not survive. and being in the "city" with all the black pavement was unbearable! had no choice but to get an icecream by the waterfront and eat it as fast as humanly possible before it melted away. went back to the house and met up with everyone back at the house so we could go check out some sweet cascade waterfalls! we casually brushed past the danger warnings and through the cut out hole in the fence and hiked off down some flooded out "paths" in the jungle until we came across some breathtaking views of lush valleys and les aigrettes. so pretty! after dinner danielle and i headed out into the night and aimed for the party street of Rue Charles de Gaulle in St. Gilles-les-Bains. naturally we managed to find our own island style version of chez nous and had to check it out, followed by le Mex, and après ça drank some bieres on the beach - Les Roches Noires - with a little help from the pier to open them (lesson # 1 for danielle), then came home with a little buzz on and ate chocolate on our spot on the trampoline before headed to my tent for sleep
dimanche, avril 4 (easter sunday!) : got a pleasant wake up call from leilu, the family dog on easter morning and then did an easter egg hunt with the kids who scrambbled around to find all the eggs that the "bells" delivered in the night before the melted to milk in the basking heat. after we packed up the car and headed to paulo's cousin's house in St. Andre - but we couldn't resist stopping on the way to check out le Cascade Niagra - then continuing on for our grand lunch with lots of rhum punch and family! ate rice and chicken and sauce all with our fingers off of banana leaf plates! and drank wine and punch and liqueurs galore! danielle had a little eye flirt fling with one of the nephews hahahaha and i got to watch her work up the courage to give him her pre-written post-it... that she had written to give to someone else hahahaha after lunch we headed back home to get ready to go out to la salsa! of course, on the way home we had to stop to see yet ANOTHER cascade! after racing home and getting ready we stole some beers and went to meet danielle's friend dhara and were off to la salsa! turns out salsa dancing is NOT my thing, but drinking beer is, so a good time was still had by all! after witnessing the steamy creole dance moves we headed back to the house where i got to meet danielle's family via skype and was officially welcomed to texas! c'est la classe! after our meet and greet it was finally time to head to bed, i actually had a bed tonight and didn't have to sleep out in the tent as madeline and daniel had left tonight - thank FUCKING god. more on the most obnoxious lady later, maybe, if i can handle the thought of her again. let's just say she asked if she could see pictures of someone's dead baby, and then ask "which ones the dead one?" and she also could not speak english, but would insist on trying to correct danielle and i in our our maternal tongue..... putain merde)
lundi, avril 5 : went to St. Leu with the family and met up with a bunch of their friends at the beach for an Easter picnic - basically ate a bunch of delicious food while lounging in the sun all day and rolling myself into the beautiful crystal clear waters when i could be bothered to move - glorious! on the drive home from the beach isabelle took us on a detour home and gave us a guided view of St. Gilles-Les-Bains, St. Gilles-les-Hauts and l'Eperon. ate dinner with the family and then called mum and dad to let them know i was still alive and then danielle and i headed back to Les Roches Noires for our nightly beers and star gazing - shooting stars and all!!
mardi, avril 6 : woke up and took the gremlins to school and went to Roches Noires to see it in the daytime - hello, surfer boys! we made some reservations to go out on a romantic boat ride and then headed home for lunch. picked up the gremlins from school and helped them make gifts for paulo's birthday and attempt to teach them some english. danielle and i helped prepare dinner by making our own home made potato chips (which ended up tasting really good!) and then we had island style chinese food and champagne. for a while danielle and i thought we had eaten octopus and i was pretty repulsed until we consulted the dictionary and realized it was cuttlefish (still not a fan of it!) all followed up by delicious cake!
mecredi, avril 7 : the kids have wednesday's off of school, so we took mathilde to her flute lessons and dropped her off and played in the pool with raphael until we had to pick mathilde up again and took them to the library after eating dinner in some crazy little creole/chinese diner place. took the kid's back home and headed out to St. Denis where danielle dropped me off to wander around while she went to her once a week french class. checked out le jardin d'etat, the marché and watched le couche de soliel from the waterfront by the cannons. danielle met me after her class and we went back to the house for dinner and then went to l'Hermitage to watch the stars comme tout les nuits and drank some muscat and ate lots of chocolate - formidable!
jeudi, avril 8 : danielle and i went back to where we saw the cascades on saturday so we could check out all three of them this time - Le Bassin Bleu, Le Bassin Malheur (the one we saw on saturday) and Le Bassin des Cormorans. we hiked through the so called paths again and up steep cliff tops until we got the the top of the never ending drop off waterfall. ventured on a little further until we came to an incredible clear pool of water resting at the bottom of another trickling fall. saw a bunch of crazy guys doing insane cliff dives into the waters and had a swim around in the freezing pool before heading to the very edge of the never ending waterfall to perch for our picnic lunch. lush jungle greens as far as the eye could see, until just at the very end when you can see it all plunge down to the ocean. incredible! after lunch we clambered back down to the original fall and had another quick dip to cool ourselves down.. then got to the real adventure of finding the bottom cascade. we definitely took a wrong turn somewhere because there was no path in sight and we were literally traipsing along through the bush, until we came upon this haggard old woodsman's house, made from slinging elaborate tarps and things of the sort around big rocks and trees to make some shanty shelter he could call his home - so trippy, and terrifying. i think we thought this was going to be the end of our lives and he was going to eat us for dinner, but instead he just pointed us in the direction to carry on further... apparently, this was all part of the path... unreal. climbed down a literal RIVER until we came to this perfect little set of 20 stone steps leading to the bottom at Le Bassin des Cormorans. this was the most beautiful of all because it was so serene, the water was an amazing color of blue and there wasn't a soul around. the topless swimming became a habit as we decided there was no place you could feel more free. passed by jungle fever man on our way back out and realized he was smoking a doobie! instantly regretted not be-friending him on the hike down... damnit! after three hours of hiking up and down and swimming and exploring we headed to Boucan Canot so danielle could show me where the raunch rock is and to relax and get some topless tanning while we admired all the perfect surfer boys on the beach - does life get better than that? really? unfortunately we eventually had to go and pick raphael up from school and head back to the house to hang out and eat dinner.
vendredi, avril 9 : took the kid's too school and went to the market in St. Paul where I bought some jam for benjamin's mom. drove on over to dream beach (aka, Les Brisants) where we tanned and did our sports illustrated photoshoot (bet you can't wait for those pictures!!!) but we couldn't really swim here because of the waves and the current, but the beach was so perfect and pretty, and the sand was gorgeous! we attempted to find pizza for lunch, but seeing how réunion is still part of france and everything was still closed at lunchtime, this was impossible to achieve so we settled for sandwiches, followed by icecream from the "best icecream place on the island". i couldn't resist the bright colours and had to have to pitaya which turned out to pretty much taste like water which was a bit disappointing. it was finally time to head to our over anticipated boat ride rendez-vous at the grand bleu at 13h30. all aboard the boat by 14h00 and off we were sailing out of St. Gilles-les-Bains port heading out into the open ocean where we were almost immediately greeted by 3-4 dolphins swimming RIGHT underneath the mesh we were sitting on and were informed that there are raquins (sharks) par tout (everywhere) - great! sailed towards St. Paul while sipping on some dodo beers and stopped infront of Boucan Canot to snorkel the coral reef and see all the crazy fish!! boarded the boat again and headed a bit closer to St. Paul where we stopped again so danielle and i could attempt to kayak together - in a one man kayak.... you can only imagine how this went. after about four hilarious attempts we finally managed to mount the kayak and paddle around in the deep dark terrifying ocean. (i think i was much more at risk of getting gobbled up than danielle) back on board the boat and further out to sea to watch the gorgeous sunset while eating samosas and rhum punch - perfection! after sunset the boat headed back into port as we acted a fool reinacting the titanic on the bow and watching the world change from day to night as the sky faded and the stars began to come out, all while chatting up danielle's little boat babe simon with his elf tattoo on his shoulder hahaha. unfortunately simon did not make the cut-list, because of 1. earlier mentioned tattoos, and 2. because he drank my beer. there was a number 3, but number 2 is too important to bother remembering anything else. went to boat docked and we got off we headed to le Mex for delicious TACOS - quite possible the staple of danielle and my friendship - and awesome margaritas!!! we were so exhausted and french'ed out by the end of the day that when the bartender tried to offer us free drinks we didn't even realize and politely declined until we later came to our senses walking down the road. stopped in at les roches noires since we were in the area for some nightly stargazing before heading home and calling it a day.
samedi, avril 10 : woke up at FIVE AM and ate some breakfast and got our shit together. jean-pierre (or jean-claude van dam as i like to call him) picked us up at six and we were off to check out la Piton de Fournaise (the active volcano on the island!) we watched the sunrise over the ocean on our two hour drive to the volcano and our tourguide jean-claude pointed out lots of great views and sights to us along the way. we made a stop in at la Grande Bassin so that danielle and i would know how to get there when we wanted to come back another day (more on this later!) finally we made it to la Piton de Fournaise and parked the car and started the insane hike in the blistering heat, high up above the clouds, with no shade for cooling! (thank god i had my sweet hat!) after about 3 hours of much suffering and water comsumption on my part - and a good show of character from danielle and jean-claude for not just throwing me off the edge - we finally made it to the summit at the top of the volcano, standing at the edge staring into the SMOKING crater! danielle and i plunked it down as close to the edge as physically possible without actually dangelling our legs right over, and enjoyed our lunch while trying to grasp the fact that i soon had to turn around and hike ALL THE WAY BACK. we later were shown that there is a sign, clearly posted and written in several languages (english included) stating that one should not cross the yellow line - about 7 feet back from where danielle and i were eating our lunch - for risk of the crater collapsing and sucking you in... whoops! unfortunately you can't hang around at the top for long, because once the clouds start rolling in you will soon be completely engulfed and wont be able to find your way anywhere, so after taking in the incredibly breathtaking viwe, much lava gathering and photoshoots it was time to grudingly start hiking back down. we stopped at the bottom of the crater and ate a snack in the lava valley before continuing on. as hellish as the decent was, it wasn't nearly as bad at the journey up, until you reached the end of the 14km hike and have to walk up about 300 steps to get back up to the top to reach the carpark. i think that people who passed me on their way down seriously considered calling me an ambulance hahaha so hot! finally we made it back to the car and were on our way home, as much as danielle and i tried not to, we were passed out within a few kilometers of driving i'm sure - so exhausted! as soon as we made it back to the house we crawled to our room and passed out until dinnertime which we struggled through to stay awake a be social in any language! needless to say not much was done after dinner tonight!
dimanche, avril 11 : slept in a bit to recover and hid in danielle's room so that we didn't have to go on the family outing and they would leave us behind and we could spend the day at the beach instead - success! ate breakfast and packed our lunch and headed to St. Pierre and decided to make a tour of the four beaches we chose for the day. started out at Grand Anse - which we like to call postcard beach, because it's on all the postcards - where we basked in the hot, hot sun and swam in the little ocean filled lagoon. our next stop for the day was La Marine and Trou Bleu, which are just seperated by a long pier heading out into the ocean. we wandered out to the end where you could be drenched by the gigantic crashing waves. last but not least we stumbled upon mystery beach that we found while trying to find L'ancienne Gare. there was tons of coral along the beach so we took out of snorkels and masks and snorkeled around a bit checking out lots of tropical fish just in waist deep water! it was all fun and games until i was greeted by a rather large purple eel and decided that was enough of being in the water for me for that day! chilled on the beach, ate chocolate and tacos and drank our beer (that danielle has now mastered opening on ROCKS sans un tire bouchon!) on our way home from St. Pierre we stopped in at dream beach again to do some star watchin' then headed back to danielle where we stopped to watch random fireworks along the way on the side of the road. chowed down on our dinner and started sorting through our millions of pictures we've taken... mon dieu!
lundi, avril 12 : took the moody monsters to school and tried to go and buy a new USB stick because we take far too many pictures but of course the store was still closed so we went back to the house and packed our lunch for the day and headed out to Étang Salé to check 4 more beaches off of our list (Le Pont, Le Tournant, Le Banc et Bassin Pirogue) bathed in the water and tanned on the DEATHLY hot black sand (i'm talking my feet actually blistered from where my skin touched the sand - later isabelle told us these sands can get to be 100degress celsius in the summertime). left the beach around 14h15 and went back to pick up a USB stick and some Dodo beers for benjamin. raced back to the house to jump in the pool to cool down before having to go pick up the gremlins from school and coming home. after dinner i called mom and dad and saunders for a quick catch up chat, then danielle and i went for a night swim in the backyard pool - pretty chilly! then we hit the sheets in preparation for tomorrow!
mardi, avril 13 : woke up at FIVE AM again and packed our bags and lunches for our hike and headed to Grand Bassin. after arriving there we parked the car and commenced the hike down into the jungle forest basin. we made it about 2o minutes down the steep slope until we came to the harsh realization of how many GIGANTIC spiders we were going to be surrounded by the entire time. and if anyone know's me, they know how uncool this is. when we stumbled upon the archway of DEATH we decided it was time to head home after two other hikers came up past us while we screamed in terror and hung on to each other in complete fear..... hiked our asses as fast as we could back up to the car and went to the view point to admire the cascade down below from afar while we decided what we were now going to do with our day. it didn't take long for us to decide that we would make the complete tour all the way around the island, stopping at whatever beaches looked appropriate in the beach bible along the way! headed from Le Tampon (that is actually the name of the town that Le Grand Bassin is in hahaha) to Monopany "beach" where you could watch the insane surf crashing on the rocks along the shoreline. from Monopany to Le Puits des Anglais in St. Phillippe, where we swam in the naturally filled pool and were both almost drowned by a tidalwave (no, seriously. life-flashing-before-eyes moment!) drove along the east coast of the island and saw all the spots where the volcano had errupted and just plowed it's path right on through the forest, through the roads and whatever else stood inbetween it and the ocean. the next stop was Anse des Cascades in St. Rose which is a gorgeous national park with lots of cascades all right beside the ocean to top it off. had our picnic lunch here and adventured around clambering through the freezing cold waterfalls and along the shore and explored (and pee'd in!) the palm tree forest. after getting back on the main road we ventured down a crazy dirt road through cornfields higher than a texan truck trying to find a view point that was marked on the map - sadly the blueberry (danielle's car) was not feelin the bumpy cruise and we decided it was best to turn around. drove on a little further and pulled over at a picnic place with a great view to make up for the last miss. en route back up north and we found a really cool suspension bridge to wander across and admire the rock river flowing beneath. continued on the cruise stopping every now and then to check out a sweet view, or a quaint little village church and eventually made it all the way around to Boucan Canot where we had our last topless tan while watching the surfers at sunset. we thought we could see sharks in the distance and began to lose our shit about how we could possibly warn everyone, but upon further investigation from the top of sex rock the so called sharks just turned out to be buoys - phew! headed back to the house where we grudgingly started to pack up my things and sort through everything. eventually we ate dinner and then ate more chocolate and drank more beer to fight off the depression while finishing up my packing. we finished the last night off out on the trampoline sippin' on some phoenix beers and watching the shooting stars... ahhhh
mecredi, avril 14 : last day in paradise :( ate breakfast and took mathilde to her flute lessons and then danielle and i went to les roches noires for one last beach session. walked along the waterfront and bought some postcards and then did what we do best - laid on the beach! picked mathilde up and went home to finish packing , shower, eat lunch and thank the Brigy family before we were off to St. Denis. stopped in at the market in St. Denis so i could by my scrapbook and then went to the airport. sat outside on a grassy knoll until i had to check in and then did just that. headed out to the grassy knoll again to ignore the fact that i was about to leave and danielle and i would have to part ways yet again, instead we just simply enjoyed the last bit of paradise. changed out of my paradise clothes and into semi-real life clothes, grabbed a sandwich to eat and then it was time. said "à bientôt" to danielle and parted ways and i headed through security to the waiting room where i continued to cry like a little baby. thank GOD when i finally boarded the plane at 20h20 they had changed my seat from a middle seat to a window seat - cha-ching!! managed to sleep most of the flight (rather uncomfortably, but sleep none the less) but i woke up just in time to realize that we were flying over the Nile River in Egypt! very cool! i could also see most of Italy as we flew over top, but it was all just a little too much when i was looking down, reminicing about my trip there in november, and then the flight attendant served me tiramisu as dessert - danielle's favourite - and the waterworks were back just like that! after my 11hour 20 minute, 9691km flight i finally touched down in paris a 5h30 AM and it was all over. luckily about 3 hours before europe starting shutting down the majority of their airports due to the eruption in iceland causing the volcanic ash cloud in the sky, too bad i couldn't have been directed back to réunion island!
from my landing at charles de gaulle i had to gather my suitcases and belongings and head from my terminal over to terminal three to meet frère jer to start our next adventure to LA BRETAGNE PROFOND to visit benjamin in his hometown for the weekend!
however, i do believe that's enough to keep you entertained for now. stay tuned (who knows when this will actually happen) but there is still much more to come! bretange avec benjamin, avril et mai à dijon, mirko ♥, vineyard visits, chez nous nights, dijon drinking, hashish, MONO, the epic goodbyes, the tears, the bus rides, barcelona, benalmadena, england and finally home. don't give up yet, it's not over, there is still plenty more to come (in all due time)
mais c'est tout pour maintenant! if you managed to get through all of this in one sitting, i salute you (good job danielle and mom!) MILLE gros, GROS BISOUS!
tout m'amour pour vous x
oh yeah, and pictures will come eventually, don't hassle me.
as a sidenote, i would love to point out that danielle and i made it to 24 beaches in total: that's over half the beaches on réunion island!
"am i yelling? ... everything feels weird"
"hey man, it was early. i just woke up, i couldn't find my bra!"
"so, have we decided where we're going to go yet?" - z
"no, we haven't decided" - d
"decided what?" - z
"did you find the weed fields and just forgot to tell me?!?!" - d
"does my bra still smell like chicken juice?"
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