Partir du paradis (Leaving Paradise)

Elodie Lorette grew up longing to become a French intellectual. She was born on Lille de la Réunion. It's a tiny island that's part of France, but is located to the east of Madagascar, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Her whole life, Elodie felt like an outsider on the island. So I was isolated, and I felt like I was in prison. I wanted to discover the world. Elodie was certain that by age 17, her real life would begin. That's when she'd be old enough to go to la France métropolitaine, a.k.a. the French mainland. It's often shortened to "la métropole." She longed to leave her island behind and experience the world. Une amie était partie en vacances en métropole. Quand elle est revenue, elle nous en a beaucoup parlé. Les grands magasins, la Tour Eiffel, les Champs-Élysées, Paris, c'était le paradis. But what Elodie discovered in la métropole complicated her understanding of the little island she came from and turned her concept of paradise on its head. Bienvenue and welcome to the Duolingo French podcast. I'm your host, Ngofen Boutouwele. Every episode, we bring you fascinating true stories to help you improve your French listening and gain new perspectives on the world. The storyteller will be using intermediate French, and I'll be chiming in for context in English. If you miss something, you can always skip back and listen again. We also offer full transcripts at podcast.duolingo.com. Réunion Island, or la Réunion, is one of France's lands beyond the sea, les territoires d'outre-mer. These five overseas regions of France come from the country's colonial past. They're scattered around the world from the Indian Ocean, to the Caribbean, and the Guyanas. La Réunion is a bit like a French Maui. It has a tropical climate, cliffs, beautiful white and black sand beaches, and lush green mountains. It also has one of the most active volcanoes in the world, which is surprisingly easy to visit. You can hike to the floor of the crater. In France, tourists visit castles and enjoy baguettes and strong cheeses. In La Réunion, they visit creole houses and eat rice, often with a local curry, pronounced "garry." Even by La Réunion's standards, Elodie's home was isolated. She grew up in the wild south, far away from the island's capital city of Saint-Denis. The closest village was a half hour away, and Elodie's mother didn't have a car. She couldn't afford one. Elodie's mother never really had a stable job, but she got temporary work in schools through the mayor's office, and she worked hard to literally build a home for Elodie and her little brother. To cook, they had a tiny gas stove. And to wash, they used a bucket or the hose outside. They didn't have electricity, so they used candles to light their home at night. At home, Elodie felt cut off from the world. The library was a long bus ride away. She had no television, no internet. So she would draw and write. To escape the island in her imagination, she started making up stories to tell aloud to her brother about travel and adventure. When Elodie was nine, her mother managed to get the house hooked up to the electric grid. Her mother couldn't wait to go back to her mother's home. She had no choice but to go back to her mother's home. She had no choice but to go back to her mother's home. She had no choice but to go back to her mother's home. She had no choice but to go back to her mother's home. She had no choice but to go back to her mother's home. Her mother managed to get the house hooked up to the electric grid. Elodie still remembers the sight of it. Hiking downhill with her brother, she saw a bright spot in the distance. And when the house came into view, it was filled with light. Now the fridge was used as a fridge. And Elodie could watch TV at home. But this only fueled her desire for mainstream French culture. And as she navigated through middle school, what French people call le collège, she now longed to have access to the internet. Everybody found pictures on the internet. Me, I didn't have a computer. So I was using old encyclopedies and I was writing on my notebook. Elodie graduated from her collège and headed to the Lycée, the French high school. It was there that she deepened her understanding of the unusual history of La Réunion. The island has only been inhabited for less than 400 years. The first inhabitants arrived on the island in the 17th century. In 1642, the first inhabitants arrived on La Réunion. The 12 men came from a crew of settlers on Madagascar who had rebelled against their commander. The empty island was meant to be their prison and their punishment. The French thought that the rebels were going to die of hunger or in a storm. But in 1649, the French came back and discovered that the rebels were alive. And in full form. What a shock! France claimed the island and turned it into a colonial society. They built coffee plantations and forced people from Madagascar and other parts of Africa to tend the fields as slaves. I visited an old colonial house with my class at the Lycée. The slaves lived there. I saw the chains and the names of the slaves. I thought to the people who had lived there. It was horrible. When slavery was finally abolished in 1848, workers were brought in from France, but also India, China, Malaysia, Polynesia and Australia. After World War II, La Réunion became a French region, with the same legal rights and representation as any French region on the mainland, though the relationship remained complicated. But Elodie didn't get to experience La Réunion's culture to its fullest. Her mother never allowed her to go out with her friends. If Elodie couldn't explore the world around her, how could she become a French intellectual or even discover herself? So when she graduated from high school, she decided to leave La Réunion and study philosophy in Grenoble, a town in the southeast of France at the foot of the French Alps. It was also a need. I wanted to give myself a chance to succeed. Elodie could afford to go to university because in France, public university is funded by the state. The state also sponsors students like Elodie, whose parents can't afford to send them to school. My mother was not very rich, and she couldn't pay my studies in Metropole. Fortunately, I was going to receive a scholarship of about 500 euros per month. Thanks to her financial help, I could pay my rent and buy food. I also received money to buy a plane ticket. Elodie knew this was her only chance to get to explore the world, but the idea of leaving home and her family terrified her. She had no idea what to expect. I was afraid. I was going to live 10,000 km from my brother, my mother, and my grandmother. I was afraid that people would find me stupid. But I was also excited. I was finally going to discover the life on the other side of the ocean. Elodie landed in Lyon, in the south of France. It seemed to her that everything was better, bigger, and more exciting than in La Réunion. Once on the road to Grenoble, everything she saw seemed immense, especially the Alps. They crushed everything around them. For me, it was like another world. On the island, the mountains are green, and we don't see much of the rock. Here, in Grenoble, the mountains are white and rocky. I had never seen snow before. I went to see the Sacres du Printemps at the opera. I had studied the ballet of Stravinsky at the lycée in music class. But there, I saw it and I heard it in real life. It was incredible. It was as if I was passing from the other side of the mirror. But Elodie still feared people would find her lacking because of the word she used. She was fluent in French, that's the language she used at school and with her friends and teachers. But at home with her family, she spoke the local language, Réunion Créole. Many everyday words on la Réunion have different meanings in Metropolitan France, or mean nothing at all. She was so afraid of messing up that she second guessed herself all the time. One day, Elodie was in a bakery buying a baguette and thought, "What's the French word for baguette?" She panicked. But there were other things that Elodie did know, things about the past that mattered to her. She was astonished to realize some of her classmates were ignorant about their own colonial history. When she finished her undergrad degree in philosophy, Elodie had a choice, stay in la métropole or go home. But prospects for a career on the island looked pretty dim. So she decided to go to England instead. Elodie applied and got a position in a secondary school in Yorkshire. Part of her job was to teach British teenagers how to speak French. But she also wanted to teach them about where she came from. Most of them had never heard of la Réunion. La Réunion is in the tropics, so there's no real seasons there. And the temperature by the beaches is usually between 70 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or 20 and 30 degrees Celsius. August is one of the cooler and drier months, while December is warmer and wetter. Elodie told them stories of Christmas and New Year's Eve on the beach. And traditionally, the Réunionés celebrate New Year's Eve by making a barbecue on the beach. It's a fantastic show. We see whales jumping and blowing. It's magical. But the most beautiful thing is when the sea carries its baby above the water to help it breathe. Her students looked at her with wonder. The more she described the island, the more awestruck they became. Until one of them finally asked what they were all thinking. "Miss, what are you doing here? You are from paradise. Why did you come here?" Elodie knew why she'd left, but now that she was in England, she found herself online researching her island and sharing it with her students. She began to see the island and herself through their eyes. And then, one snowy morning, she decided to call home. And Elodie realized something. She missed home. In her room, Elodie started playing Maloya songs. It's a music tradition from La Réunion, which originated from the chance of enslaved men and women on the plantations. She listened to the rhythm of the percussive instruments, the rouler and the kayam, and she breathed a little bit more easily. Elodie still longed to be a French intellectual, but this old desire now led her in a new direction. She turned her gaze towards home. She applied for a French master's degree in creative writing and her chosen subject, L'île de La Réunion. She wanted to delve into its complicated history. And she got in. Elodie felt that the things she had lacked as a child, electricity, television, the internet, they had fueled her desire for knowledge, adventure, and culture. It made her who she is. This story was written and narrated by Elodie Lorette. In September 2018, Elodie bought a one-way ticket back to La Réunion. She's living there with her mother, working as a writer, and teaching schoolchildren about the richness of their island's culture and history. We'd love to know what you thought of this episode. Send us an email with your feedback at [email protected]. And if you like the story, please share it. You can find the audio and a transcript of each episode at podcast.duolingo.com. You can also subscribe at Apple Podcasts or your favorite listening app so you never miss an episode. Duolingo is the world's leading language learning platform and the number one education app with over 300 million users worldwide. Duolingo believes in making education free, fun, and accessible to everyone. To join, download the app today, or find out more at duolingo.com. I'm your host, Ngo Fen Putubuele. A la prochaine!