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We circled above the gorgeous island of Mauritius before landing occasionally spotting beautiful stretches of white sand belonging to innumerable 5 star resorts. Most people associate the island with honeymoons and expensive family holidays but we were there for much more important and special occasions. Lucie’s brother Jonathan lives on the island with his wife and newly born baby girl, Jordan. Luc hadn’t seen him or Nat for 2 years, I had obviously never met either of them, and Luc was about to meet her first niece for the first time! I have to admit that I was quite nervous meeting Jonathan for the first time, which is unusual for me, but all my anxiety disappeared as soon as we stepped off the plane and were greeted as we left the airport.
We drove for a little under half an hour to the small town of Curepipe, which is where Jonathan and Nathalie live. They have a beautiful, warm and welcoming home adorned with amazing paintings by Nat.
It was a little before four o’clock and so we awaited the arrival of baby Jordan from crèche. Jordan Emily Hett was 5 months old and so beautiful and cute. She would
smile at anyone and was beginning to giggle as well. In all the time was stayed (8 days) she did not cry once, not once! Very different to Lincoln at that age! All we said to Jonny was to wait until the next one isn’t so perfect in their early months! Luc fell in love with her as soon as she picked her up but was always conscience of the fact that in a week’s time we would have to say goodbye with the uncertainty of when the next visit would come.
We hired a car for the week and so went off exploring the island. We drove back down towards the airport and spent the day on Blue Bay, which was a gorgeous beach, picture perfect, with white sand and clear blue water. Jonathan had Friday afternoon off from school, he is a teacher, and he took us to a place called Le Monde. Over the weekend we drove down to the east coast, in convoy, to Roche Noir. Nat’s parents own a house right on the beach and it was so nice to spend the day lounging around on the beach and outside the front of the
house. Luc and I want snorkelling in the bay there, which was rather funny!
Jonathan is fluent in French due to Nathalie’s family being white Mauritians, all of whom speak French as their first language. They all speak perfect English as well so we didn’t have to worry too much! Nat’s mum Brigitte prepared a wonderful lunch for all of us, a typical French summer lunch, with large amounts of French baguettes, salad, cheeses, meats and lots of ice cream and sorbet to finish. One of the best lunches I had enjoyed whilst being away!
Jonathan, Nathalie and Nathalie’s brother and sister (JoJo and Jean-Marc), along with Crystal, who stays with Jonny and Nat, joined Luc and myself for dinner that night. We had planned to go for some pizza at a near by restaurant but after sitting down and deciding what we all wanted we were told that they had no pizza left! We drove to a nearby Chinese after singing Happy Birthday to me as a bit of fun to see how easily embarrassed I am, turns out quite easily!
We spent the majority of Sunday morning in church. The church that Jonathan and all
of Nathalie’s family go to is one of the biggest on the island and are currently in the construction period of building a new one that will eventually be able to hold up to six thousand people. Luckily they had a translation section so that we could hear the sermon. Everyone at church was really friendly and Jonathan and myself ended up playing squash later in the evening with some of the guys. I lost to Jonny, 11-9!
The weather in Mauritius is quite temperamental. Quite often it would be cloudy and horrible in Curepipe and at the same time there would be blue skies down on the coast. On Monday we ventured to the north west of the island to a place called Port Louis. Luc and I spent the day shopping and eating, before our second traffic accident of our gap year (but we won’t dwell on it for too long! Oops). On Tuesday we spent one last day on the beach in Blue Bay. I really enjoyed having gorgeous home cooked food again and am missing it right now in Thailand. Crystal, Chanel and Elsabee also taught us how to play a card game called “Onze”,
which became very addictive.
We left on Wednesday afternoon after a very relaxing morning at the house eating breakfast and finishing the last minute packing as well as handing over the slightly worse off rental car!
We both found it hard to leave. Luc particularly as she did not know when she would next see her baby niece or Jonny and Nat. It was so nice to meet Jonathan and Nathalie and we both hope that they might make it over to the UK in the summer.
One more night in Johannesburg before flying to Sydney for the first time in nearly 4 years!
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