What Culinary Delights Follow Shark?

Photo by Laurent Guiader, 2006.

Some of you may recall mention of our tasting shark unbeknownst to us whilst on this fair island. By us, I mean Sophie. And the guilty party was Laurent. A few weekends ago, we ventured a bit further. While on Ile des Pins, we decided to partake of the lovely dish buried in the ground above: bougna. Bougna is one of the Kanaks' traditional feast dishes. It generally contains taro, yam, sweet potato, banana and either pieces of chicken, fish, crab or lobster. All of this is wrapped in banana leaves and buried to cook in the ground under hot coals. Above, our Kanak friends are uncovering the meal we later ate, below.

Photo by Laurent Guiader, 2006.

Palm-Pruning Time in Nouméa

Every year at this time of year, workers from the local gardening company stop by. Not unlike the chimney sweeps in Paris, they offer a regular and much-needed service. Only rather than descending chimneys, they climb coconut palms. Right, a photo of one such fellow just in front of our terrace. He climbed the palm with the help of a ladder (I've seen them shimmy up without a ladder, but this one was a tricky one), pulled a machete out of his pocket and started hacking away. Down went the browning palm fronds and all of the coconuts. Why in heaven's name, you ask. Because during the hurricane season, the last thing you want is speeding wayward coconuts.

Photo by Julie Harris, 2006.

Earth from Above by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Yann Arthus-Bertrand, an internationally renowned French photographer, was in Nouméa last week for the opening of his "Earth from Above" (or "La Terre vue du Ciel") exhibition on the Place des Cocotiers. Since the beginning of the "Earth from Above" aerial photography project, over 500 000 photos have been taken in some 100 countries.

Some of you may be familiar with the image used for the Nouméa exhibition - and for the cover of the exhibition's collection of photographs. It shows a heart on the earth. This photo was taken in New Caledonia.

You may have seen Yann's aerial photography before - if not, take a look at his comprehensive site at www.yannarthusbertrand.org. Available in English, French and Spanish, the site contains links to his photos, information about his work and his commitment to raising awareness about sustainable development and our changing planet, e-cards, free wallpaper and news about upcoming exhibitions. (His "Earth from Above" exhibit is also currently on in Melbourne and the Netherlands; it just finished in Plymouth and Prague.)

Many of us were very happy to have Yann visit Nouméa. Laurent and I went to his book signing and later took in the exhibition. Sophie later said that one day she hopes to have enough money to be able to buy one of his original photographs. Me, too!

Ile des Pins - The Return

Photo by Laurent Guiader, 2006.

We couldn't help ourselves. Our good friend Sheila flew all the way from Paris via Los Angeles to see us about 10 days ago. Sheila loves blue. And the best blues in this part of the world are found on Ile des Pins (Isle of Pines). We vacationed on Ile des Pins last Christmas and loved it. So we decided that Sheila couldn't come all this way (it can take anywhere from 24-36 hours to get here from Europe) without seeing Ile des Pins. The island was in full colour again this visit. Sheila's favourite day was the day we took the pirogue (and outboard rigger - pictured above) and sailed up the Baie d'Upi. We had lunch at the Meridien and then off we went to the piscine naturelle (natural spring pool) to snorkel. What exquisite fish! It was once again a heavenly day in New Caledonia!