Our 2020 Focus on La Francophonie region is:
New Caledonia
New Caledonia (French: Nouvelle-Calédonie) is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The archipelago includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets. French people, and especially locals, refer to Grande Terre as Le Caillou (“the pebble”). New Caledonia is divided into three provinces. The North and South Provinces are located on the New Caledonian mainland, while the Loyalty Islands Province is a series of islands off the mainland.
| Capital & largest city | Nouméa |
|---|---|
| Official language | French |
| Recognized languages | |
| Demonym | New Caledonian |
| Government | Devolved parliamentary dependency |
| President of France | |
| Édouard Philippe | |
| Legislature | Congress of New Caledonia |
| History | |
| Annexed by France | 1853 |
| Overseas territory | 1946 |
| Nouméa Accord | 5 May 1998 |
| Area | |
|
• Total
|
18,576 km2 (7,172 sq mi) |
|
• Land
|
18,275 km2 (7,056 sq mi) |
|
• Water (%)
|
negligible |
| Population | |
|
• 2017 estimate
|
278,500 (182nd) |
|
• Density
|
14.5/km2 (37.6/sq mi) (200th) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2011 estimate |
|
• Total
|
$9.89 billion |
|
• Per capita
|
$38,921 |
| Currency | CFP franc (XPF) |
| Time zone | UTC+11:00 |
| Driving side | right |
| Patron saint | The Virgin Mary (as Our Lady of the Assumption) |
Wikipedia: New Caledonia Wikipédia: La Nouvelle-Calédonie
Worldatlas: New Caledonia CIA Factbook: New Caledonia
New Caledonian Cuisine
Due to low levels of domestic horticulture, fresh tropical fruits feature less highly in New Caledonian cuisine than in other Pacific nations, instead relying on rice, fish and root vegetables such as taro. One way this is frequently prepared is in a buried-oven-style feast, known as Bougna. Wrapped in banana leaves, the fish, taro, banana and other seafood are buried with hot rocks to cook, then dug up and eaten.
Here’s a recipe for a Modern Bougna that you can make at home and a video to see how it’s done. Remember, the oven temperatures given in the recipe and video are in Celsius: 200ºC is approx. 400ºF; and 160ºC is approx. 325ºF.