The overwater bungalow is their flag. And their lagoons with 50 shades of blue their passport for a romantic holiday, like Bora Bora, the iconic atoll. Spread over five archipelagos, the 118 islands of French Polynesia decline postcard landscapes and nature to great spectacle against the backdrop of fragrances of tiare flowers. A paradise to explore also under water between manta rays and dolphins!
The must-sees of your holidays in Tahiti
In French Polynesia, one chooses not only its island but also the color of its sand! In Tahiti, the largest and most populous island of French Polynesia, they are usually black sand, as on the beautiful beach of Pointe Venus ...
In Maupiti, a pocket island of the Society archipelago, the sand is white just like in Bora Bora, where the motu necklace seems to float on the infinite shades of blue of a lagoon where manta rays evolve. And in the Tuamotu archipelago, the beaches are tinged with pink as on the atoll of Fakarava or Tikehau and its natural pool populated with rays-eagles, barracudas, gray sharks and dolphins ...
In Rangiroa, reef island, welcome to the second largest atoll in the world! The passes of this Tuamotu Atoll, whose sand belt is exposed on the lagoon's waters, are among the most famous in the world for diving. There are many species of fish including the most impressive: manta rays or leopard rays, all kinds of sharks, barracudas and dolphins ...
The Tuamotu Archipelago is also the cradle of Tahitian pearl culture, to be discovered during a visit to the Manihi lagoon pearl farms.
To watch for humpback whales, head to the Rururtu Caves in the Austral Islands. These ancient burial sites are an ideal point of observation when marine mammals cross to fowl between August and October. In the Marquesas, to appreciate all the wild beauty of this archipelago immortalized by Paul Gauguin, one explores the island of Nuku Hiva whose vertiginous peaks reveal fertile valleys like that of Taipivai with its waterfalls, one of the most beautiful sites of tikis stone of the island.
And in the Gambier, we go back to the sources of the conversion of French Polynesia to Catholicism: more than 1,600 kilometers southeast of Tahiti, the archipelago aligns an incredible number of churches and convents including the Saint-Michel cathedral Rikitea, the oldest religious monument of the archipelago (1848).
Succumb to the taste of French Polynesia's cuisine
With waters as full of fish, it's no wonder that the national dish is "Tahitian" raw fish, served with lemon and coconut milk, two ingredients found in other recipes such as chicken fafa (leaves). of a variety of tuber).
The fish can also be eaten in fafaru after maceration in a broth of sea water and freshwater shrimp heads. Chinese influences can be found in chao mein, a mixture of shrimp, pork and chicken noodles, and chao pao, a brioche stuffed with meat and steamed vegetables. Punupua'atoro is a corned beef usually cooked with onions. Among the tubers, the taro is declined in chips and the cassava in dessert with poe'banane. At breakfast, do not miss to taste the coconut bread, oil and coconut water.
Awakening sense in Tahiti
In this terrestrial paradise which embellishes the flower of tiare or jasmine, all the senses are awake! We are enamored of the flavors of Tahitian cuisine and sweet notes of vanilla, which flatter nose and palate. Monoi, the beauty oil based on coconut oil, retains the fragrances of tiare but also the softness of a caress on the skin. Faced with the beauty of a Polynesian tattoo, the eye rejoices and gets lost in the face of so much mystery, it is also an esoteric link between heaven and earth. And the delicate tinkling of the black pearls mounted in a necklace evokes the soft lapping of the lagoon waters on the piles.