Following the Pangalanes Canal, Sainte Marie Island will be featured this Thursday, May 17, 2018 at 5:30 PM French time, on the Arte channel. Sainte Marie Island is a gem of the Indian Ocean. Just a few kilometers off the eastern coast of Madagascar, this small territory measuring 49 km long by 5 km wide is a concentrated essence of its larger neighbor.

Remarkably preserved flora and fauna, breathtaking underwater depths where humpback whales, traveling up from Antarctic waters, come to breed each year... These countless assets make it a unique destination for naturalists from around the world. Sainte Marie, as they say, immerses its visitors in a dream from which one wishes never to awaken.

But Sainte Marie Island reveals another distinctive character, linked to its history. It is the oldest "French" territory in Madagascar. Indeed, while the Great Island resisted French domination until the late 19th century, this small Sainte Marie, after serving for two centuries as a pirate haven, became French as early as 1750 and maintained a strong bond with the former colonial power until quite recently.

Yet, as surprising as it may seem, this resulted not in extreme Francification of Sainte Marie, but in a delicate cultural blending. Thus, the identity of the Saint-Mariens, whose authenticity is so often praised, has been able to absorb all exogenous influences, and in doing so, has only grown stronger. The island's very dialect, which resembles the Betsimsaraka dialect, bears traces of French influences, but also Bantu, English, and Indonesian ones.

France has profoundly shaped Sainte Marie, and this heritage is visible everywhere today. Our journey to Sainte Marie will tell the story of French influence on the island and trace the multiple marks of this rich cultural blend it has produced: in its language, certainly, but also in its architecture, in its legends, in its flora and fauna.

Benjamin Lalande - Détours Madagascar