the gentle Avea Bay on the island of Huahine

Avea Bay, Huahine Island, in French Polynesia.

Let me take you to one of my favourite bays in Polynesia, Avea Bay on Huahine Island, are you with me?

Slip off your flip-flops as they're called here and feel the endlessly fine sand sliding between your toes. Close your eyes, breathe in the softness that envelops you, sweet Huahine, and particularly Avea Bay. There's a hotel I know, the Relais Mahana, with "deluxe beach" bungalows facing the ocean on the bay's most beautiful beach. In the evening, sailors moor in front of the hotel and dine at the hotel's Tenahe restaurant; it's true the decor is somewhat kitsch, with slightly old-fashioned rattan chandeliers, but the view of the Pacific is stunning. In the morning, the boats have often already departed, take a dip to see the little fish swarming around me, provided I have a piece or two of bread; it's best not to swim barefoot (as elsewhere in the Pacific) and especially not here if you don't want your toes to encounter the slimy mass of sea cucumbers, a type of invertebrate mollusc that teems in the area. The island's vegetation is a green like nowhere else, piercing, as if the flora wanted to break the silence reigning over this island by bursting with its colours.

Béatrice Brothier, passionate gemologist