Papeete

Commune of Papeete
Location
Papeete1.png
Location of the commune (in red) within the Windward Islands
Administration
Country France
Overseas community French Polynesia
(capital city)
Administrative subdivision Windward Islands
(administrative capital)
Commune centre Papeete
Mayor Michel Buillard
(1995 – present)
Statistics
Elevation 0 m–621 m
Land area 17.4 km²
Population¹
(Aug. 2007 census)		 26,017
 - Density 1,495/km² (2007 census)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code 98735/ 98714
1 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.
France

Papeete ("water from a basket",[1] see footnote for variant spelling) (pronounced [papeʔete]) is the capital of French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The commune (municipality) of Papeete is located on the island of Tahiti, in the administrative subdivision of the Windward Islands, of which Papeete is the administrative capital. The French High Commissioner also resides in Papeete.[2] It is the primary center of Tahitian and French Polynesian public and private governmental, commercial, industrial and financial services, the hub of French Polynesian tourism and a commonly used Port of call.[2] The Windward Islands are themselves part of the Society Islands.

The urban area of Papeete had a total population of 131,695 inhabitants at the August 2007 census, 26,017 of whom lived in the commune of Papeete proper.[3]

Contents

History

Papeete Waterfront

The area that now constitutes Papeete was first settled by the British missionary William Crook of the London Missionary Society in 1818.[1] Queen Pōmare IV moved her court to Papeete and made it her capital in the late 1820s, and the town grew into a major regional shipping and transportation center.[1] Papeete was retained as Tahiti's capital after France took control of the Tahitian Islands and made them a protectorate in 1842.[2] Herman Melville was imprisoned in Papeete in 1842; his experiences there became the basis for the novel Omoo.[4] Paul Gauguin journeyed to and toured Papeete in 1891 and, except for a two-year period in 1893-1895, never returned to France.[5] Robert Louis Stevenson also spent time in Papeete in 1888.[6] Half of Papeete was destroyed by a major fire in 1884, which then prohibited the use of native building materials.[2] A major cyclone caused extensive damage to the city in 1906, and a French naval vessel was sunk in the harbor in October 1914 by two German men-of war, which bombarded Papeete.[2] [1]

The growth of the city was boosted by the decision to move the nuclear weapon test range from Algeria to the atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa, some 1,500 km at the east of Tahiti; this originated in particular in the construction of the Faa'a airport next to Pape'ete, the only international airport in French Polynesia. In 1983, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built the Papeete Tahiti Temple here because of the large number of members in the region. On September 5, 1995 the government of Jacques Chirac conducted the first of the last series of nuclear test detonations off the shores of Moruroa. A resulting riot in Papeete lasted for two days and damaged the international airport, injured 40 people, and scared away tourism for some time.[7][8](Similar rioting occurred after another French nuclear test in the same area in 1987).

Demographics

Papeete Cathedral

The urban area of Papeete had a total population of 131,695 inhabitants at the August 2007 census, 26,017 of whom lived in the commune of Papeete proper. The urban area of Papeete is made up of 7 communes:

Construction has boomed since the 1960s due to an influx of 35,000 immigrants (20,000 from France and 15,000 from French Polynesia's outer islands) in response to an improved infrastructure and France's nuclear testing program.[2]

Travel and tourism

Presidency of Papeete

Arrival and departure

Traveling tourists arrive and depart Papeete via cruise ship at Papeete Harbor or domestic airline at Faa'a International Airport, which was completed and opened in 1962.

Transportation

Primary roads consist of the 3-lane "Boulevard Pomare" along the city's harbor front which extends into a 4-lane highway.

Climate

Papeete-kliima.svg

Sights

Shopping

Papeete Market

Papeete in popular culture

Note

The name Papeete is sometimes spelled Pape‘ete in Tahitian, using the okina to represent the glottal stop, as promoted by the Académie Tahitienne and accepted by the territorial government [2]. Most often, however, this is omitted.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Kay, p102
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Kay, p106
  3. ↑ (French) Institut Statistique de Polynésie Française (ISPF). "Recensement de la population 2007" (PDF). Retrieved on 2007-12-02.
  4. ↑ Kay, p108
  5. ↑ Kay, pp462-464
  6. ↑ Kay, p466
  7. ↑ New York Times coverage of Atomic tests resumption in Tahiti
  8. ↑ New York Times coverage of riot at Tahiti's international airport

References

External links