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Why a section about Reunion Island ? Maybe because I find it's such a beautiful place. And I'm not saying that because that's where I'm from and spent 18 years...
Reunion Island is a small tropical island in the Indian Ocean, 700 km east of Madagascar (see map)
Reunion Island has some nice beaches, but its main asset is certainly its mountains, especially its 3 cirques (Mafate, Salazie and Cilaos) and its volcano. See by yourself ! (I took these pictures last summer - 2001 ).
You can also find nice pictures on this Flickr group
Reunion Island is a volcanic island. Le Piton des Neiges is the volcano that created the island. It is now extinct and culminates at 3070m (10070ft). A second volcano, La Fournaise ("The Furnace") has taken over and is still one of the most active volcano in the world. Fortunately, La Fournaise is usually not a threat to the population.
The climate of the island is very pleasant. The summer is the rainy season, and the average high temperature is 30ºC. I personally prefer the winter, the dry season, because the nights are cooler (around 20ºC on the coast, but sometimes below 0ºC at higher elevations).
Reunion Island was discovered by the Portuguese in 1513. The uninhabited island became French in the 17th century, and the first settlers arrived in 1663.
Its name changed many times, from "Bourbon" under the monarchy of the Bourbons to "Bonaparte" under Napoleon and finally "Reunion" in 1848. Influxes of (sometimes unwilling) people from Africa, Madagascar, China and India made Reunion Island the cultural mix it is today.
The main economic resource of the island was the culture of coffee and later sugar cane. It is in Reunion Island that a slave, Edmond, designed a process for artificial pollination of vanilla. Slavery was abolished in the island in 1848.
In 1946, Reunion Island became a French "departement" (an administrative subdivision of France).
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