We’ve Reached Civilization Indeed!

Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands, French Polynesia

Located in the Society Island chain, Tahiti is the best known and main island of French Polynesia.  With a massive population of 131,695, Papeete is the capital of both the island and the colony.  Scoffing at that number?  In case you haven’t been keeping track, about 49% of the entirety of the population of French Polynesia lives in this city.  Not this island, this city.  The next largest town we’ve encountered consisted of about 1700 people.  The only university in French Polynesia is here along with actual shopping malls, supermarkets, (…finally!) restaurants that don’t double as family rooms and all the modern conveniences.  Welcome to the big city.

Papeete is most assuredly a city of modern civilization.  A fact that was brought into stark focus the second we stepped onto dry land.

It is interesting to compare the three island capitals we have come across so far.  Taiohae Bay, Nuku Hiva was both more rustic and a Polynesian capital that some French people lived in.  Avatoru, Rangiroa was at its core a little town with an artifice of tourism that had been built up around it.  Papeete, the ‘big city’ in the minds of the inhabitants of these islands, is a modern city set in the middle of an ancient culture.  It has Polynesian roots but lacks the small town feel we’ve come to so closely associate with these people.  It is the capital of a French colony of people who are not French.  Elements of the contemporary and the past attempt to blend into each other.  It makes for interesting combinations.

Where else in the world would you meet your wife for an Italian Panini made with a real French baguette

before jumping in your truck with an outrigger canoe on the top…

to drive though the roundabout out to the pier…

for a quick paddle (the national sport, remember?) past the Polynesian sailing canoe…

before you grab your daughter from ballet class and head home…

but on the way pop by the supermarket to grab your escargot and tube of gourmet butter…

and sneak over to the “McDrive” for a post-workout milkshake with the little one?

That actually happens here.  It’s normal.  Well, maybe not in that exact order but still, it’s the principle that you could do this and it would not be considered out of place.