A guide to Overseas France: Tahiti

Middle school geography textbooks taught us that there is more the French République than the hexagon in Western Europe, because France also have overseas collectivity in place far removed from the Parisian chic. French Polynesia, for example, started out as a protectorate and then as a colony, and now it has more or less been smoothly integrated into France’s list of territories, albeit its relative autonomy.

The best known island of French Polynesia is Tahiti, a strange combination of French and indigenous culture, language and lifestyle, spiced up with some Chinese influences as well. …