Praslin

Praslin was uninhabited and thickly forested when French expeditions charted the Seychelles in the middle of the eighteenth century. Lazare Picault explored it in 1744 and named it Isle de Palmes for its palm forests; in 1768 it was renamed after César Gabriel de Choiseul, duc de Praslin, a French diplomat. The coco de mer's huge double nut had long drifted to other Indian Ocean shores, where it was gathered and traded as a marvel and a medicine, but its true source was not discovered until 1768.

Settlement followed the French claim to the archipelago, with enslaved Africans brought to work the land; much of the lowland forest gave way to plantations, and the Vallée de Mai survives as a well-preserved palm forest. Britain took the islands during the Napoleonic Wars and abolished slavery in 1835, after which coconut, copra and later cinnamon and vanilla were the mainstays of a small farming population scattered around the coast.

Praslin remained remote from the capital well into the twentieth century, reached only by boat from Victoria. The airstrip on the south coast, the fast catamaran ferries and the construction of hotels along Anse Volbert changed that within a generation, turning tourism into the island's main business. The Vallée de Mai was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1983, and the offshore islands of Cousin, Curieuse and Aride were given over to conservation, making Praslin a base for visits to several of the country's nature reserves.

Praslin is Creole, Catholic and small-scale, with a village culture that has kept more of its old pace than Mahé. Kreol Seselwa is spoken everywhere, English and French are used in writing and with visitors, and life turns on family, the church and the sea. Sunday mornings belong to Mass in Baie Sainte Anne and Grand Anse, and feast days bring bands and food stalls to the village grounds.

The coco de mer is more than a plant here. Its nut is one of the cultural icons of the Seychelles, the trade in nuts is controlled by law, and the islanders' pride in the forest is bound up with the jobs the reserves provide. The Seychelles black parrot, the national bird, is found only on Praslin, though it has been seen feeding on neighbouring Curieuse.

Music is moutya and sega, heard at parties, beach bazaars and during the annual Festival Kreol. Fishing, boat-building and the handling of visitors are the shared skills. Manners are informal but courteous: greet before asking, dress modestly away from the beach, and expect a slower answer than a city gives. Football, the country's most popular sport, is followed keenly.

About 7,500 people live on Praslin, most of them in the villages strung along the coast — Baie Sainte Anne, Anse Volbert and Grand Anse — rather than in any single town. Houses stand on the flat land behind the beaches and on the lower slopes; the forested centre is largely empty and protected.

Nearly everyone's income comes from tourism, directly through hotels, boats, taxis and the reserves, or indirectly through construction and shops. Fishing remains part of many households, and the small farms grow bananas, breadfruit and vegetables that cannot compete with imports arriving by ferry. Government jobs — school, clinic, administration — make up much of the rest, and many families have relatives working on Mahé.

The rhythm follows the boats and the buses. The first ferry and the first flights of the morning bring day visitors, the bus loops the island until evening, and the villages are quiet after dark, when the beach hotels are the only lit places. Water supply, waste and the pressure of visitor numbers on a small island are the recurring concerns, along with beach erosion and the cost of everything that has to be shipped in.

Praslin eats what the sea and the garden provide, in the Creole idiom shared across the Seychelles. Grilled fish — bourzwa, the red snapper, above all — comes with rice, a lentil dal and satini, a sharp chutney. Octopus curry in coconut milk is the dish most often cooked for visitors, and a light tomato and onion sauce is the everyday treatment for a reef fish.

Breadfruit, cassava and sweet potato are the starches behind the rice, fried as crisps or boiled and mashed. Ladob, in which plantain or sweet potato is simmered in sweetened coconut milk with nutmeg and vanilla, serves as pudding, while the salt-fish version of the same name is a savoury dish. Coconut appears in everything, from curries to cakes to the milk drunk straight from the nut.

Lunchtime for most islanders is a takeaway box from a counter near the jetty or the shops, cheaper and better than the beach restaurants. Fruit is abundant and seasonal: mangoes, papaya, passion fruit, jackfruit and the small sharp citrus used to sour sauces. The local drinks are Seybrew beer, rum from Mahé, and kalou, the local palm wine.