Tahiti – Punauia
Location: Tahiti French Polynesia
Type of village: Farés
Year of opening: 1955
Year of closing: 1961
For the record: Who had this crazy idea to set up a village 15,700 kilometers from Paris in 1955?
If nowadays, it takes 20 hours by plane from Roissy, in 1955 to get from Marseille to Tahiti, it took 1 month by boat for the outward journey and the same for the return. In exchange, the GMs spent 2 months of vacation there. So count well, you need 4 months of free time in your schedule. As a result, Tahiti can only appeal to a small category of GMs. The liberal professions, people who have broken away from the norm, the "privileged" with wealth and free time are those found in Tahiti.
Presented as the first permanent village of Club Méditerranée (i.e. open all year round), it can accommodate 200 to 300 people, but Punauia will have great difficulty filling up. 600 GM per season and no more.
Fourteen traditional farés covered with woven coconut leaves are set up on the village beach. Spearfishing in the lagoon or line fishing on the reef, canoe trips, and horseback riding are available, as well as excursions to other islands, motus, and atolls.
The price is 240,000 old francs with payment facilities over 18 months.
The journey
The first convoy left Marseille on June 28, 1955. The future Tahitians embarked for a month at sea aboard the Tahitien, the Eridan, or the Calédonien of the Messageries Maritimes. Upon arrival in Papeete, they were greeted as they disembarked the boat by tamouré dancers and covered in flower necklaces.
Starting in 1958, GMs were able to travel to Tahiti by plane. TAI's DC 6Bs connected Paris-Orly to Tahiti in 50 hours with 6 technical stops along the way.
GMs choosing this mode only stay in the village for one month instead of 2 for those who chose the boat.
Village Chiefs
Jean Marie COUHARD and his wife, Choumie, opened the village in 1955. They were replaced in 1956 by Laris KINDYNIS
Diving: Marcel Isy SCHWART and Marcel CONTAL will go to Tahiti several times.
Videos
Silent archive film by Marcel Contal. Mediterranean Club of Tahiti, late 1950s. Among the sequences, we witness the Polynesian Tamouré (dance), the arrival by seaplane at the GM club village, big game fishing and a discovery of part of the island.
Anecdote by Larrys Kindynis about Tahiti 1955
Rare document from the Club Village in Tahiti, Punaauia district, in the 1950s and 1960s
