Saint-Pierre is the biggest town on the south coast of Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean, and it feels like a proper city rather than a resort: some seventy-six thousand people, wide avenues, a lively seafront, a covered market, schools and traffic jams. It is also where you start the long climb toward the volcano, so the first sensation of the ride is leaving the heat of the coast behind.
Réunion is a volcanic island, young and steep. Its two peaks are the dormant Piton des Neiges, the highest point in the Indian Ocean islands at over three thousand metres, and the very active Piton de la Fournaise in the south-east, one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Much of the island is protected as a national park, and the whole landscape of ridges, cirques and ravines was added to the UNESCO list in 2010. That backdrop matters, because the ride from here goes from palm trees and sugar cane to cloud forest and finally to bare lava over barely fifty kilometres.
The road heads inland through the suburbs of Le Tampon, a big town on the slope above, and then up the Plaine des Cafres, a high farming plateau where it can be ten or fifteen degrees cooler than the shore. Cows graze on green pasture that looks oddly like the Alps, and the air smells of eucalyptus and wet earth. Corners are mostly broad and smooth. You should still expect rain, slippery patches under the trees and sudden mist, as the clouds tend to build against the mountains from mid-morning on.
Before you leave town, do the practical jobs. Saint-Pierre has all the fuel, cash and food you could want, and there is little to buy on the volcano road except a coffee at the plateau villages. The seafront is worth a slow look in the morning, with market stalls selling vanilla, rum infused with fruits and spices, and the local rice-and-meat dishes called rougail and cari, usually spicy and eaten with lentils. Start early: on this island the best light, clearest views and driest roads are all before noon.