L'Île Nuage

L'Île Nuage appears on no known map. It owes its name to Matthias, the cabin boy of the Jour d'été, who spotted it from the deck through the haze: "It looks like a cloud on the sea with an island sitting on top of it."

It is a volcanic island. The white-sand beaches contrast with black rocks standing like sentinels at the water's edge. A dense tropical jungle covers the slopes of the smoking crater that towers over the whole horizon. The seabed, transparent near the shores, reveals shoals of multicoloured fish. Seen from the sea, the landscape looks straight out of a picture book, too perfect, almost unreal.

The island is nonetheless inhabited. A tribe of macaques rules over the jungle and does not welcome visitors gladly.

At the top of the volcano, visible as you draw near, something metallic glints.

Places

• Le Château tombé du ciel: a monumental ruin perched on the crater