Bora Bora

A lagoon around a mountain, spoken in Reo Tahiti and French.

Your host · French

Maeva

Lagoon host

Maeva wears a tiare over one ear and a pareo the color of gardenia. She greets in Reo Tahiti, then speaks French of the lagoon — of uru, of manta, of the mountain.

Bora Bora is a high volcanic island inside a lagoon so pale it looks invented. Tahitian and French share the motu. Blacktip sharks patrol the shallows like they own them — because they do.

Field notes

10 fruits

Coconut
Coco / niu
Cocos nucifera
The tree of the motu. Water, cream, oil, and the cup.
Banana
Banane / meiʻa
Musa
Cooking and sweet bananas in every fare garden.
Pineapple
Ananas
Ananas comosus
Queen pineapples of the Society Islands, small and perfumed.
Papaya
Papaye
Carica papaya
Breakfast with lime. Trees along the ring road.
Mango
Mangue
Mangifera indica
Seasonal, dripping, shared from a neighbor's tree.
Breadfruit
Uru
Artocarpus altilis
The Polynesian starch. Roasted, fermented, or fried, the tree of voyaging.
Noni
Noni
Morinda citrifolia
A canoe plant, pungent when ripe, used as medicine more than dessert.
Lime
Citron vert
Citrus aurantiifolia
The sour of poisson cru, squeezed over raw fish in coconut milk.
Watermelon
Pastèque
Citrullus lanatus
Sliced on the motu, colder than the lagoon.
Passion fruit
Fruit de la passion
Passiflora edulis
Vines on coral walls, pulp for a punch.