In Réunion, the flora of the Mascarenes in three stages
On the east coast of Reunion, the Diana Dea Lodge estate is crossed by a botanical trail marked with encounters.
Here, a vetiver producer who tells the story;
there, the creator of a vanilla plantation who accompanies us there;
there again, a farmer leading a cooking workshop around his lontan fruits and vegetables, to be tasted in a banana leaf.
Then, direction the wild South: at the Palm Hotel & Spa, 5 stars eco-labeled above the beach of Grande Anse, a local child reveals the history of the unique lens of Cilaos.
Finally, in the Hauts, at an altitude of 1,500 meters, a night in a Kaz Insolite bubble plunges us into the heart of a cryptomeria forest.
13 days / 10 nights from € 3,200 per person, departing from Paris.
Monde-authentique.com
To read also: Portrait of a traveler: Jean-Pierre Nicolas, ethnobotanist
In São Tomé and Príncipe, the taste of cocoa and coffee
Claudio Corallo's Terreiro Velho cocoa lantation.
Here, the seeds extracted from the pods still surrounded by their pulp.
ERIC MARTIN
This tiny African state, located off Gabon, was the global epicenter of cocoa cultivation.
To better understand “the chocolate island”, choose the optional excursion on the cocoa road which leads to the Roça Agostinho, once the largest plantation in the country.
Remains tell its battered story.
São Tomé is now especially cultivating the reputation of its chocolate with a powerful taste, the bearer of the vegetal richness of the tropics.
Another option is to take the coffee route.
The oldest plantation on the island is in Monte Café, over 600 meters above sea level.
The opportunity to taste a cup of arabica.
What else?
9 days / 7 nights, from € 1,900 per person excluding option (€ 100, excursion) from Paris via Lisbon.
Voyageursdumonde.fr
In Uzbekistan, botany in all its forms
In the Nourata mountains, north of Samarkand, we discover more than twenty of them while hiking, including Amygdalus spinosissima, Crataegus turkestanica, or Pistacia vera. Günter Gräfenhain / SIME
Little is known: the flora of Uzbekistan, in Central Asia, is rich in about 4,500 species of wild plants.
In the Nourata mountains, north of Samarkand, we discover more than twenty of them while hiking, including Amygdalus spinosissima, Crataegus turkestanica, or Pistacia vera.
Then direction the desert where grow about 1,500 varieties.
The Kyzylkoum (literally red sand), near the city of Bukhara, conceals a multitude of plants that this trip reveals.
The Jeyran ecocentre even cultivates endangered species there.
A fascinating journey that ends in the Boysun mountains.
15 days / 14 nights, from € 2,950 from Paris.
Escursia.fr
To read
Seeds
(35 €, ed. Plume de Carotte). From biology to exploration, through art or literature, a bible on the subject.
