Mauritius: Art of living under the varangue

It could begin with a long sequence shot, as in a film: the camera reveals a vast bedroom, extended by a terrace the size of a tennis court, landscaped and adorned with a succession of sofas and deckchairs. The linen sails sway gently in the warm sea air. Soothed by a lagoon more celadon than Chinese porcelain, the velvety lapping of the Indian Ocean licks a strip of white sand. Below, in the park, your gaze lingers on the infinity pool, its curves iridescent with ceramic, then glides to a restaurant shaded by palm trees.

The staff are busy, but with delicacy and discretion, as elegantly as possible. Then the camera pans to a bathroom the size of a Haussmann salon. The towels are as soft as a quilt; the bathtub is positioned so as to overlook the filaos; and the taps, shaped like Italian light fittings, deliver water in fine bubbles, as light as the best champagnes... This is how the stay of a Mauritian palace guest could begin; a feeling of calm that recalls the happy ending of all James Bond films: relaxation without guilt, a well-deserved refuge after triumphing over adversity... In short, an image of balance and delight, a promise of an earthly paradise just an 11-hour flight from Paris.

The slow gestation of an earthly paradise

Yet Mauritius was not always considered a paradise. Since it was discovered in the 16th century, the Portuguese, Dutch, French and British who followed in their footsteps have been far from happy. In fact, for a long time, cyclones, droughts, food shortages, pirate attacks and rebellions caused by slavery were the order of the day on this confetti that arose from the ocean as a result of volcanic activity. In 1769, 20 years before writing Paul et Virginie, the novel that established the idyllic image of the country, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre from Le Havre painted a vitriolic portrait of the white island society he encountered. The island, which in 1764 had just been ceded by the Compagnie des Indes to the Kingdom of France, appears like a crab basket. Officers, soldiers, Parisian emissaries, missionaries, sailors, merchants and renegades of all stripes: everyone had their day. Horrified by the extreme cruelty reserved for the slaves, the author denounces a general pattern of behaviour. "insensitivity to everything that makes honest souls happy. Only falsity is esteemed here. Discord reigns in all classes"..

The chaos began to dissipate a century later with the combined effects of the abolition of slavery and the development of the land. The sugar cane plantations enriched their owners, who had large wooden houses built on their land, perched on volcanic stone foundations. It was in one of these that Baudelaire was welcomed during his trip to Mauritius in 1841, "a fragrant land caressed by the sun. All these colonial houses have adopted an architectural element of Indo-Portuguese origin: the varangue. Located in the living room, this wide, climate-adapted passageway serves primarily to protect the house from the sun, but it also organises and expresses the tropical lifestyle that irresistibly attracts visitors to Mauritius. An intermediary space between the building and its garden, the varangue has no defined function but, on the contrary, brings together numerous activities in the shade of its wooden lath blinds: lounging, reading, lunch, tea at 5 o'clock, dinner, receptions. It's the heart of the house, much more so than the enclosed rooms.

Under the spell of the varangas

Today, many Mauritian hotels have adopted this heritage in more or less sophisticated forms, depending on their category. Right from the lobby, the Four Seasons makes use of this passageway to create a spectacular view across the site, a mangrove bordering the island's east coast. The establishment comprises 123 villas scattered around the park, all with swimming pools and, of course, all with a veranda, housing a dining room and an outdoor lounge conducive to indolence.

Luxurious without ostentation, the hotel never ceases to create confusion between inside and outside. For example, the glazed bathrooms open onto a private patio, an outdoor shower area set in a mineral atmosphere of volcanic stone. The InterContinental, with its denser structure of ten units each housing around ten large rooms, also cultivates a special relationship with its site - in this case the ocean - from which it is protected by an artificial islet offering a sheltered beach where guests are invited to dine once a week. At Tides, the Sugar Beach Resort's trendy restaurant, diners overlook the swimming pool on one side and, on the other, an immense lawn maintained like a putting green that runs alongside a beach stretching for over a kilometre. The Mövenpick, also on the edge of the coastline, ingeniously creates transitional volumes, like its main restaurant set in the remains of a former sugar factory: its canopies run alongside an infinity pool that orchestrates a perspective that follows the skyline.

Guests of the legendary One & Only Le Saint Géran are also invited to enjoy the cuisine of Vineet Bhatia, India's first Michelin-starred chef. Here he revisits his country's tandooris for gourmets, including spicy black chicken, dressed with tomato and cashew nut chutney and garnished with pure gold leaf, or salmon smoked on the premises, accompanied by mustard and dill, red onions and cucumber yoghurt.

Hotels in harmony with the colonial architectural past

Living under the veranda means daydreaming, chatting, having a drink and, incidentally, dozing off... Amédée Maingard (1918-1981), a pioneer in the development of island tourism, understood this well.
In the 1950s, at a time when nobody would have bet a rupee on Mauritius' development, this leading figure on the island, founder of the Beachcomber hotel group, creator of the first incoming agency and of Air Mauritius, of which he was chairman, envisaged his country as likely to attract top-of-the-range tourism. And this visionary opened his first hotel, in a colonial house... with a veranda, of course. Perhaps this is why, a few decades later, Mauritian hotels are doing their utmost to blur the boundaries between inside and outside. "Doing it this way means we can offer our customers the entire landscape to live in - true luxury".says Koogeen Vythelingum, Director of Customer Relations at Trou aux Biches Resort & Spa, the famous establishment created in 1971 by the Beachcomber group, which is now undergoing a facelift.

Following an investment of €110 million and four years of colossal works with a strong environmental focus - solar hot water, waste water reprocessing - the hotel is due to reopen in March 2011. The main attraction? Its exceptional beach, on the edge of which the buildings are set in such a way that they disappear to give the illusion of living on a terrace, perched above the lagoon. If you add to all this a mouth-watering, diverse gastronomy concocted, of course, by Mauritian chefs but also by French, British and Indian cordon bleu chefs, you can understand why guests rarely leave the island's hotels... They are far too absorbed in lazing around, "wonderful occupation"as Pierre Daninos pointed out.

But Mauritius is just as understanding towards those who are absolutely determined to make the most of their time. "to do something. Thrill-seekers can test their mettle by strapping on a kitesurf and golfers can test their swing on the island's eight 18-hole courses. At Anahita, the Four Seasons course, designed by South African player Ernie Els and the venue for last autumn's Mauritius Golf Masters, is considered the most enjoyable for the diversity of landscapes it offers, between mountain and ocean. For the rest, all the seaside sports are of course on the programme, with a special mention for scuba diving, where you can observe sharks, moray eels, groupers, barracudas and lobsters or, more simply, sea anemones, depending on your level and daring. There are also plenty of activities specifically designed for incentive operations.

For team-building activities, the choice ranges from beach Olympics to rallies around the island, a popular way to meet the island's ever-welcoming locals, as well as treasure hunts in the Pamplemousses garden - a botanist's fantasy - or safari trails on quad bikes and zip lines among the antelopes, deer and zebras of Casela African Park.

Many alternatives to lounging

Mauritius, which offers accommodation on a human scale, has nevertheless managed, thanks to a number of specialised service providers, to meet the expectations of large groups without the need for mega-hotels. The size of the groups is not a concern, as we make extensive use of the outdoor areas - the hotel beaches, of course, but also certain islands that can be privatised," says Ariel Lamothe of Impact Production, an events agency with expertise in scenography, sound, image projection, pyrotechnics and special water effects. The largest of our marquees have an air-conditioned surface area of 1,500 m2. And they can be set up just about anywhere, providing a capacity of 800 guests for a dinner or 1,000 for a conference, depending on the configuration"..

"The tradition of excellence that is attached to the local hotel industry is of course one of our major assets in meeting the needs of the incentive segment, stresses Vincent Cavalot, President of the ITMA (Incentive Travel & Meeting Association). We're not the only island with a tropical climate and beautiful beaches, but we clearly make the difference when it comes to quality of service. Staff training has long been a priority here, including in the organisation of outdoor events. Setting up a dinner party on a desert island, with a menu that resembles something other than an improved picnic, is not a problem. Nor is organising a catamaran outing for 200 people or privatising a colonial mansion for a gala evening".. In this respect, the Château de Labourdonnais, which opened its doors last October after several years of extensive renovation, represents a new opportunity.

Built in 1859, this exceptional building, mainly made of teak, was once the residence of the Wiehe family, a large sugar-producing family of Danish origin, and offers a glimpse of the art of living in Mauritius in the 19th century: Victorian-style English furniture, Napoleon III armchairs embroidered with the owner's monogram, panoramic wallpaper commissioned in Alsace... And, of course, a veranda that surrounds the house so that you can enjoy a park planted with hundred-year-old mango trees from every room. Yet another excuse to enjoy a little idleness, before questioning the wisdom of including laziness as one of the seven deadly sins.