Programmes Croissants In The Jungle

1 - St Pierre Et Miquelon

This tiny archipelago sits amid the great fishing waters of the North Atlantic, just off the coast of Newfoundland. Two decades ago the fishermen of St Pierre had to cut up their boats after they were banned from fishing by the international courts. Now the 6,000 people here simply work for France. But what do they actually do all day? Rosie and her family investigate the fishing land that time forgot and unearth the quintessential French nature of life in a remote Antarctic archipelago. They realise that there is never a good time to be on the islands which are often cut off in winter and can be bathed in a thick blanket of fog in high summer. They go fishing on one of St Pierre's only boats, they see shipwrecks washed up on the islands perilous shores. They sample the locally produced foies gras and sing and dance the Agadoo with some rather reluctant Canadian language students.
Duration: 30

2 - Martinique

Rosie Millard visits Martinique and learns about the increasingly tense relationship between France and its territories and departementes overseas. She visits the ancient city of St Pierre which was enveloped by a huge explosion 100 years ago. On this volcanic island she finds a simmering discontent at the status quo, one which nearly erupted in 2009 with a general strike and some rioting. Rosie talks to some of the most senior politicians in Martinique about the island's relationship with France and the root causes of today's unrest. These include 102-year-old Dr Pierre Alika co-founder of the ruling party which has dominated the island since it became a French Departement in the 1950's.
Duration: 30

3 - French Guyana

Rosie Millard ventures into the darkest jungles of French Guyana on the latest leg of Croissants In The Jungle. It's not so much the Croissants that she is worried about but everything from the red ants that bite her, the spectacled caymen that are hauled onto her boat and the cooked iguana that end up on her dinner plate! Rosie spends several nights in an open topped hotel boat in the swamps of the Marais de Kaw where she also stumbles on one of France's most remote post boxes and one of France's most distant post codes. Even in the capital city of Cayenne there is no escaping the larger than life wildlife as she is forced to buy a tarantula the size of her hand. In the country known by convicts who were incarcerated here as the Green Hell, Rosie finds the ruins of the old penal settlement and finds the cell once occupied by the author of the book Papillon. At the European Space Agency, Rosie hears that one day it might just be possible to see the French Tricoleur on the moon.
Duration: 30

4 - French Polynesia

In French Polynesia, Rosie visits the remotest part of the remotest part of France - the Marquesa islands. Home of the Belgian French singer Jacques Brel and where the artist Paul Gauguin is buried, Rosie learns that despite Gaugin's world wide reputation, the painter has a fairly mixed reputation in French Polynesia. Rosie interviews the grandson of the great painter and is given exclusive access to his private collection of Gauguin replicas. In the same Pacific islands, Rosie visits the sacrificial altars of the cannibals, the Tiki, who practiced their ways until only 100 years ago. Despite the overwhelming influence of the French, the Catholic Church and tourism, she finds that local culture, especially in the form of dancing costume making and singing, is alive and well. In the lagoons of French Polynesia made famous by the likes of Jacques Cousteau, Rosie films with giant manta rays and jumping dolphins. Rosie visits the upmarket destination of Bora Bora.
Duration: 30

5 - New Caledonia

New Caledonia sits off the coast of eastern Australia on top of one of the richest mineral seams in the world. Its capital Noumea, bedecked with beaches and enclosed by a huge lagoon, is often compared to the Cote D'azur. Surprisingly inhabitants aren't entirely happy with the status quo and their ongoing relationship with the French mainland. In the countryside, Rosie discovers cowboy country and a land which seems to have stronger cultural ties with outback Australia. At the annual Bourail Fair, she films some of the southern Hemisphere's most prominent rodeo riders. In rare forests she comes face to face with the wingless Cagou - a bird that cannot fly which is often compared with the extinct Dodo bird. She films at an enormous nickel mine and learns that the future of New Caledonia is really wrapped up in its mining prospects.
Duration: 30

6 - La Reunion

Rosie and family complete their own tour of the outer reaches of the French Empire among the volcanic bowls of La Reunion. La Reunion offers a dramatic and adventurous end to this family escapade as well as the prospect of a well-earned rest on the island's deserted beaches. Sitting alongside Mauritius in the southern Indian Ocean, La Reunion is blessed with spectacular scenery and an abundance of natural wildlife. The family witness the annual appearance of large whales en route to and from Antarctica and they swim in its protected lagoon alongside puffa fish and other exotic animals. Rosie finds an island which is desperate to promote itself to the outside world after decades as a virtual French secret. But while the French may be forced to stop protecting the island economy to such a large extent, Rosie is told that the future of La Reunion remains safely in French hands.
Duration: 30