Difficult to pin down what is créole architecture taste in La Réunion but it’s easy to recognise: there’s the preference for a three-window pattern and a building design based on square, the choice of colours is distinctive. Residences of the petits-blancs (white settlers) have more restrained colours and more architectural detail.
The gardens of Hell-Bourg are similarly diverse. Almost all flowering plants are imports; the tree ferns are imports that have become indigenous. There’s a striking absence of garden versions of plants used for agriculture, so I didn’t notice any flowering ginger, coffee or sugar cane.
Hell-Bourg has the derelict buildings of a faded past as a spa town but overall, the Cirque de Salazie has retained its image as a destination for rest and recuperation. New tourism brings prosperity with an increasing number of holiday lets and renovated buildings where the owner lives somewhere else. A cocktail that reminds me of Keswick in the Lake District, a small town also surrounded by mountains and with a transient population of more-or-less sporty hikers and tourists.
The village of Hell-Bourg was listed in 2018 as one of the prettiest villages in all of France (les PBVF). There’s a degree of poverty but some of the ageing permanent population make fabulous gardens. Time and droughts are taking their toll so are rebuilds and simplified gardens which are starting to dilute the créole charm and character of the village.