TETIAROA

Sous les étoiles

"Lying on the sands of Mermaid Bay in Tetiaroa, it is terrifying here, as elsewhere, to contemplate the infinity of the celestial night, but also so soothing to observe from east to west, the slow unchanging movement of the stars, the mysterious constellations, the nebulous galaxies that distracted the long watch nights of my young marine years."

Abstracts

Tetiaroa is an atoll in the Windward Islands in the Society Archipelago. The atoll hosted a stopover of the Bounty Rebels in 1789. It was given to the dentist Johnston Walter Williams for his good services to Queen Pomare. He transformed the atoll into a copra plantation at the expense of its endemic vegetation. In 1960, during the filming of one of those Hollywood bluettes, the Revolts of the Bounty, Marlon Brando fell in love with his beautiful native partner and the island of Tetiaroa, which the country granted him a long lease.

In 2008, Richard Bailley negotiated with the star's heirs to build the Brando Hotel, one of the most luxurious resorts in the Pacific, if not the world.