DELICIOUS MAURITIUS

Creole-cooking classes, rum making and sugar tours are the ideal mix for Miranda Comerasamy

- RACHEL BERESFORD & ROHAN SMYTH

Imagine a love story where our two protagonists are separated by class. A love that cannot be and that ultimately (spoiler alert!) ends in tragedy.

The story of Paul et Virginie by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre is a famous French novel from the late 18th century that looks at this theme while capturing the Mauritius of that time: a place, in the author's eyes, where everyone and everything coexists in peace and harmony. Fast forward to now and it is these elements that embody the Veranda MC’s Paul et Virginie hotel and spa in the fishing village of Grand Gaube.

Our drive there from the airport is something quite magical too.

Large, swaying palm trees and green hills are the backdrop to colourfully dressed people walking on the roads.

Some of them, two men abreast, are carrying on their shoulders a plinth that looks like a Hindu god.

It transpires that we had landed during a festival called Maha Shivratri, celebrated annually in honour of the deity Shiva. These were locals making a pilgrimage to a sacred crater lake called Grand Bassin, 1,800ft above sea level in the south of the island. What a spectacle.

When we arrive at the four-star, adults-only hotel, we are wowed by the complete transformation by interior designer Ophelia Merle.

In the elegant and welcoming lobby, there are bamboo chairs and sofas. The gorgeous Poudre d’Or bar has direct views of the Grand Gaube Lagoon.

Just outside, parasols and bar stools seem to blend with the surrounding landscape, and there is a pair of sea-view pools, one with an infinity edge.

I love my superior room, beautifully decorated in muted green tones with touches of orange, wooden lamps and mirrors, with a direct view of the dazzling sea and those perfect palms.