We’re in les Îles du Salut, the Salvation Islands. Just eleven miles off the coast of French Guiana, the next country round from Brazil. Most famously known for housing part of a harsh penal colony from 1852 to 1953, these three islands include Devil’s Island, which movie buffs will recognise as the setting of Papillon, be it the 1973 Steve McQueen version or the 2017 with Charlie Hunnan.
Last time we came here we went to the aforementioned island, this time we’re going to the largest of the three which has much more than the crumbling ruins of a few cells. Here on Royale Island is the mostly still standing infrastructure which contributed to running of all three islands.
We tender across, approaching the jetty we see a beautiful line of palms, and then walk anticlockwise around the coast, seeing various crumbling buildings as we go. Passing a naturally occurring pool, we note it’s named the prisoner’s pool - the prison was considered inescapable, in fact only one person ever did - Papillon. However there is an even more famous resident, Alfred Dreyfus, who was subsequently exonerated, and so could be considered another survivor. Mostly people don’t leave here - the sadistic regime, the appalling conditions, many diseases and Madame de la Guillotine made sure of that.
Today it’s much more likely we will catch the tender back to Quest, once we have wandered around every possible pathway, checked out all the buildings including cells, execution wing, Gendamerie, auberge and numerous others.
We enjoy wildlife such as the agouti and kiskadee as well as countless capuchin monkeys. The former are large guinea pigs which are, apparently, capable of biting into a Brazil nut shell without problem.
Returning home we get Caesar salad and a fabulous pizza with the new dough, but miss dessert because we know at 15:00 is an ice cream social. Given the date, we see all sorts of vivid beers and cocktails!
Later in the pool we chat to a variety of fellow guests before succumbing to the jacuzzi and cocktails. Davide makes us a Jameson, Peter Heering, Rasberry and Passion Fruit concoction without a name, but it’s lovely!
The boys join us and we move on to margaritas. Matt has just done a few episodes of Corrie so we’re amused to hear some tales, but nothing I’ll write here!
They disappear to get ready for later, we continue to soak up the sunshine etc, until we also need to get ready for dinner. We’ve got our second TK tonight, and we enjoy foie gras tarte, Irish potato soup, lamb / veal all of which are gorgeous.
There’s no time left for pudding as we need to get down to the theatre in time for Roy Tan’s second show. It’s a great virtuoso performance of tango, show tunes, off-the-cuff request mash-up and a great John Williams reflection.
We get home to find a fabulous floral arrangement has been delivered.
Comments
Post a Comment