A free stay on a beautiful island in the Seychelles? Just a few years ago, it was at Longue and nowhere else... All in length, this 800 m long and 300 m wide strip of granite land, anchored within the Sainte-Anne Marine Park, was however not synonymous with languor, since it was still the prison island. Formerly devoted to patients suffering from smallpox, the island had been used as a quarantine station at the end of the 19th century. A few hundred inmates made up its "clientele", many of whom had been convicted of drug-related offences. Although a prison, it was still a pretty cool place to be. During the week, the prisoners worked on maintaining the island and its culture. On visiting days, there was even a summer camp atmosphere around the families, while the recluses killed time by fishing in the lagoon at the expense of the administration. In short, this prison island was not Alcatraz. Here, it was the prisoners who were armed (with a big knife for garden work) and not the guards. For New Year's Eve 2002, a dozen prisoners even managed to convince some of them to let them go to Mahé for a New Year's Eve party. Which they did, but the affair was to become public knowledge in the end. The imperfect was indeed obvious, as the prisoners of Longue had been moved to Mahé, to the new prison located on the heights of Montagne Posée, so that this beautiful island in the marine park could open a new page in its destiny, necessarily touristic.

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