The Pacific

[?]ing Native in the Med.

[?]Ou Don't Have

To Seek

The Pacific

"Om Alan Fitzgerald,

in London. ou don’t have to go to Tahiti find straw huts beside a m sea, said the advertise it, in “The Times”, London’s \ known parish paper. >KING out at the drizzle, I sad on and found that this jar, Europe’s avant garde are Polynesian.

Tahitian-style thatched huts. of bamboo and straw, ac odating two or three persons, r Young Things wearing is” and little else, can ease ace of modem living in eleven esian “holiday villages” owned he Club Mediterranee in e, Sicily, Southern Italy, lia, Corsica, Elba, Capri and ,hiti itself. re is also a “Village ;ude” in the French Alps, the villages, according to the sctus I received, have their »rivate beach where scattered the shore, under the shade of )live trees, some estimated French members enjoy going “Polynesian style”. At about 3 per head per fortnight (inc. and boat fares). ’t imagine they are roughing gether. The prospectus men ‘an ever-open bar (like every else in the village it is in the ,ir) only a few paces from the 'by is a restaurant, with a cental breakfast and a us three course lunch and ... served by charming and Italian waitresses and cal vin ordinaire is on tap, f charge. edible as it seems, among all decaying Europeanity are 1 tame Tahitians who “put on startling exhibitions of their onal dances”. course, dancing is “barefoot the stars” with “non-stop od cha-cha”. f For the Drinks in Beads ly Young Things can forget exists, for the only currency n club villages is strings of ;d beads—red, green, and ones. n you want to buy a drink ever-open bar, all you have

to do is detach a few beads from the string around your neck. “The handiest way of carrying your cash ever devised.”

Other Club facilities are a first aid post (for lasses who sit on their change?); a laundry (pareus back in 24 hours?); deep freeze, barber’s shop, safe deposit for travellers’ (that old untidy paper stuff!); and a hi-fi set which broadcasts daily concerts of classical or “typical” music.

Everything But The Surf

The Club calls its village on the island of Elba (where Napoleon found life languid but less con genial) its “Royaume de Farniente” —Kingdom of Sweet Idleness.

An added attraction to this one is an annexe village where “you can spend a few days in complete isolation” (presumably to get away from that damned hi-fi).

For those who wish to savour the authentic Polynesian “paradise”, the Club has a village at Punania, “a few miles from Papeete (opened in 1956) ” which can be reached by air from Paris every month by TAI.

A four-weeks stay in Tahiti for only £Stg.s7o all inclusive. “Exotic islands of Moorea, Bora-Bora, and the lies Sous-le-vent may be visited by sailing boat”. (It seems hard to believe that this price includes the air-fare).

Headquarters of this fishing, water-skiing, and sun-baking Mediterranee Club is at 8 rue de la Bourse, Paris 2. In London, the Club has a branch at 139 Kensing ton High Street,