August 16, 2012
Our friends from Raiatea, Alan and Marlies, had taken their boat to Bora Bora for a few days and had ended up at the yacht club the same day we arrived. The next day, we all rented bikes from the club and headed off for a ride around the island. It’s not very big and can be done in half a day.
I felt strange and wobbly on the bike, and I was pretty shocked to realize I haven’t ridden a bike since 1990. You may not lose the ability to ride a bicycle, but you can lose the ability to ride one with grace and dignity. It took some time before I felt confident and well-balanced on the bike, but once I did, it felt wonderful. I vowed that when we return to land life, we shall live someplace where we can ride bikes.
The trip was very scenic, having what you’d expect to see in Bora Bora: palm trees swaying in the warm trade winds, green hills and mountains, and the ocean colored with fantastic shades of blue.
When we got to the south end of the island, our European friends knew of a place where they sell “the good bread.” They kept referring to this market and the bread, which here means baguettes. We’ve had baguettes constantly since arriving in the South Pacific, and while we would agree that some are clearly better than others, we couldn’t imagine any that were so much different than the average fresh-baked baguette. We stopped at the small, unassuming market and bought some much-needed water and a baguette to try.
Eating a baguette from this market was like eating a bagel in New York after a lifetime of bagels from suburban California. I don’t know if it’s the cooking method, the air, or the water, but New York bagels are different. That’s the way this bread was: different from any other baguette we’ve tried. I don’t know why, but the flavor and texture were special, by far the best baguette we’ve ever tasted. We sat on a wall and ate our baguette with hunks of cheese that Marlies had bought. We would have gone in and bought another but we would soon be stopping for lunch and didn’t want to ruin our appetites. Sadly, we never made it down to that market again. If we ever get back to Bora Bora, our first stop will be at that market for “the good bread.” -Cyndi
