Saint-Leu

Saint-Leu is the paragliding capital of the Indian Ocean, a small west coast town whose mountain wall rises so steeply behind it that pilots take off nine hundred metres above the sea and land on the beach twenty minutes later. Conditions are reliable almost every day of the year, which draws competitions and a permanent flying school scene. The town also has one of the island's best left-hand surf breaks and a marine turtle centre. Inland the road climbs past Le Souffleur blowhole to the Stella Matutina sugar museum. Tandem flights run all day and need no experience at all.