With its tropical palms and creole cuisine, its pavement cafes and beret-clad bowls players, this Indian Ocean Island has one foot in France, the other in Africa – and its magnificent, mountainous head up in the clouds.

Forming the tip of a cocano rising form the ocean floor, Reunion’s highest peak is Piton des Neiges. Around it fan the three spectacular cirques of Mafate, Cilaos and Salazie, while the still-active Piton de la Fournaise rumbles away to the south surrounded by lava-strewn landscapes.

Reunion’s spectacular mountainscapes are a magnet fro hikers, photographers and nature lovers. Before helicopters, the only way into the Cirque de Mafate was on foot. This meant hiking over precipitous passes before plunging into a mystical region of ancient forests and hidden valleys, where tiny hamlets cling beneath razor-sharp ridges.

Form heart-pumping hikes to high-soaring paraglide rides; Reunion is a dream for adventure-sports enthusiasts. You can hurtle from Le Maido down to the coast by mountain bike, go canoeing or whet-water rafting in the Cirque de Salazie, or surf the renowned left-hander off St-Leu.