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| photo © P. Letellier |
Entre-Deux is a commune (municipality) in the south of Reunion. It's name ("between two") comes from the fact that it lies between the Bras de Cilaos and Bras de la Plaine rivers. It became a commune on March 31st 1882.
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One recent Sunday a group of us took part in a guided tour of the small town. Although I'd been several times before, it had often only been a stop when passing through on our way to start a hike to the Dimitile (1837m).
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| our guide, Etienne photo © P. Letellier |
We met in front of the town's tourist office.
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| Entre Deux tourist office photo © P. Letellier |
The town itself is quite small; the whole commune has a population of only 6000.
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| Abolition of slavery monument photo © P. Letellier |
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| sculpture photo © P. Letellier |
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| Entre-Deux church photo © P. Letellier |
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| This Chinese-owned corner shop has existed for 150 years |
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| L'Arbre à Palabres is one of the town's restaurants. |
One of the most interesting things in Entre-Deux is the variety of lambrequins decorating house facades. Lambrequins are ornamental decorations on roof edges, and are typical in traditional Creole architecture. Design themes often reflect plant life.
The word "lambrequin" originally comes from the Dutch lamperkijn and is variously referred to in Reunion Creole as lanbrokin, dantèl la kaz or dantèl dovan.
Although lambrequins are by no means unique to Entre-Deux, the town has managed to preserve a great variety of them.
Lambrequins were originally a feature of naval architecture.
Most of the lambrequins in the town are made of metal, although they can also be made of wood.
When it rains the water runs to the point, before falling onto the ground.
This was useful at a time when gutters did not yet exist.
The town has many well-preserved traditional Creole houses, the oldest dates from 1863. Below is a selection of cases.
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| house of a former Mayor |
Case is the Reunion Creole word for a house.
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| photo © P. Letellier |
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| this house is covered in wooden shingles, known locally as bardeaux |
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| photo © P. Letellier |
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| another shingle-covered building photo © P. Letellier |
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| modern house, built in a traditional style |
The variety of trees, plants and fruits in Entre-Deux is interesting too. Again, you will find nothing that you cannot find elsewhere on the island, but the local micro-climate combined with town conservation means that many different species are concentrated in the commune.
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| lychee tree photo © P. Letellier |
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| garden of the Tourist office photo © P. Letellier |
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| mango tree |
Entre-Deux is one of the few places on Reunion where the rare Bourbon pointu coffee is grown (coffea arabica var. laurina). Bourbon pointu is the second most expensive coffee in the world. Bourbon is a former name of Reunion. If you look at the town's coat of arms (see photo at the top of the post) you'll see that it's composed of three coffee grains.
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| bourbon pointu coffee plant |
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| grapefruit (citrus grandis) |
Water apples are known in Reunion Creole as jamalac, or poire d'eau in French.
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| Water apples (syzgium samarangense) photo © P. Letellier |
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| Jack fruit (artocarpus heterophyllus) |
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| Cocoa beans (theobroma cacoa) photo © P. Letellier |
These fruit are less common, they are known as giant granadillas in English and barbadine in French (passiflora quadrangularis).
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| giant granadillas |
This staghorn fern grows on a lychee tree said to date from 1865.
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| Staghorn fern (Platycerium bifurcatum), known locally as corne de cerf or corne d'élan (photo © P. Letellier) |
This is Crepe myrtle (lagerstroemia indica) known locally as Goyavier fleur or Lilas des indes:
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| photo © P. Letellier |
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| photo © P. Letellier |
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| Hibiscus photo © P. Letellier |
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| Jade vine (strongylodon macrobotrys) photo © P. Letellier |
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| photo © P. Letellier |
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| photo © P. Letellier |
Local wildlife!
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| photo © P. Letellier |
Outside the town at Bras Long is a picnic area, where we saw this fairly large St Expeditus shrine - they are often much smaller. St Expeditus is a Roman soldier saint who is particularly venerated on Reunion.
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| red St Expeditus shrine |
Not far away is a view point across the river valley to the commune of Le Tampon.
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| looking across to Bras de Pontho, part of Le Tampon |
Afterwards we went for a lovely farmhouse lunch at "Chez Josian et Celine."
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| Prawn & jackfruit and guinea-fowl carris |
In 2002 a bridge known as the Bras de la Plaine bridge was opened that made it much easier to access Entre-Deux. It is 145 metres high and spans 281 metres across the Bras de la plaine river.
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| Bras de la Plaine bridge |
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