Saint-Denis

Saint-Denis is a city on Réunion, an island in the warm Indian Ocean.

Mountains rise all around it.

Saint-Denis is the main town of Réunion, says the French encyclopedia Larousse. It lies on the north coast of the island, which is entirely volcanic and sits in the Indian Ocean, 560 kilometers east of Madagascar. Larousse calls it a center for offices and trade.

France's statistics office, INSEE, gives 155,634 people for Saint-Denis's commune on 1 January 2023, and 192,727 for its agglomeration, the town together with the built-up places around it.

Larousse ('Saint-Denis 97400'): chef-lieu of Réunion, on the island's north coast; 151,997 inhabitants (2018 census); an administrative and commercial center with food industries; the Léon-Dierx museum (paintings and drawings). Universalis ('SAINT-DENIS, La Réunion', Guy Fontaine): 146,489 inhabitants (2013) on 3,500 hectares; the town gathers the island's urban population, jobs and senior staff. City Population (from INSEE): commune 109,072 (1982), 121,999 (1990), 131,557 (1999) at the censuses, then 140,733 (2007), 146,985 (2015) and 155,634 (1 January 2023), which City Population labels estimates (since 2006 France computes populations from census results of different years), first among Réunion's communes; agglomeration 192,727 (2023); Réunion 889,679 (2023). Larousse ('La Réunion'): an island of the Indian Ocean at 21° south, 560 km east of Madagascar, entirely volcanic.

Look at the blue ocean and the white buildings!

There is a big green sports field with a red running track.

Clémenceau Lauret took this photo on 14 December 2025 from a lookout on the Montagne road. His description says it shows the Bellepierre neighborhood, sports grounds and the Indian Ocean. Green trees and white buildings are in front, a playing field with a red running track is in the middle, and the city spreads along the coast under a blue sky with white clouds.

Larousse names the Léon-Dierx museum, with paintings and drawings. On Wikidata, the Jardin de l'État, a historic garden, is about 1 kilometer south-southeast of the town's point.

Commons: File:Saint-Denis vu depuis le belvédère de la Montagne.jpg, by Clémenceau Lauret (own work, uploader = author, CC BY-SA 4.0), dated 14 December 2025 from the Exif data, uploaded 30 January 2026; his French description: a panoramic view of Saint-Denis taken from the lookout on the Montagne road, showing the Bellepierre neighborhood, sports facilities and the Indian Ocean behind; his own categories 'Saint-Denis (Réunion)', 'Panoramics in Réunion' and 'Ile de la Réunion' (another Commons user replaced them in March 2026 with 'Views of Saint-Denis (Réunion)' and 'Clouds and blue sky in Réunion'); recorded camera point 20.8793° S, 55.4455° E. Seen in the 1,280-pixel copy: trees and white buildings in front, a playing field with a red running track and a second field, the city along the coast, the ocean and a sky with clouds. Wikidata from the town point (Q47045): Musée Léon-Dierx (Q3329255) 0.58 km SSE; Jardin de l'État (Q3162482), a historic garden, 1.02 km SSE; Muséum d'histoire naturelle de la Réunion (Q3330880) 1.02 km SSE.

Réunion has a very tall mountain and a volcano that still erupts.

A big national park covers much of the island.

Larousse says Réunion is made of volcanoes. The older part rises to Piton des Neiges, 3,069 meters high, and is cut by three huge bowl-shaped valleys called cirques: Cilaos, Salazie and Mafate. In the southeast, the Piton de la Fournaise, 2,631 meters high, is the island's active volcano, and its lava flows sometimes reach the sea.

Réunion National Park covers 40 percent of the island. Above 1,000 meters grow bamboo and tamarind trees, and heathland reaches up to the summit.

Larousse ('La Réunion'): entirely volcanic, mostly basalt; an older part (between 2 million and 450,000 years old), built by four great successive volcanoes, and a younger part with active volcanism; the older edifice, gashed by the cirques of Cilaos, Salazie and Mafate, peaks at Piton des Neiges (3,069 m), with cliffs of more than 1,000 m above the cirque floors and long, regular planèze slopes down to the sea; the younger southeast is the Fournaise massif, with three nested calderas; Piton de la Fournaise (2,631 m) at the center of the youngest; most lava flows come from side fissures and run down the Grand-Brûlé slopes, sometimes to the sea; forest on the windward side and dry bush below 600 m on the leeward side at first, much of the eastern forest cleared below that height for sugarcane; bamboo and tamarind stands above 1,000 m, then heath (Philippia montana) up to the summit; the national park covers 40 percent of the island. Wikidata: Piton des Neiges (Q1545452), 3,070 m, 24.67 km S of the town point.