The economy. The wars. The Republicans. The Democrats. The weather.

Time spent in Flic en Flac, Mauritius will solve none of the above, except the weather; it can do a mighty job, though, of putting it all in perspective.

First off, who wouldn't want to visit a place called Flic en Flac? When you're in the doldrums, just saying 'I'm off to Flic en Flac' can be helpful. The name is a transliteration of a Dutch phrase meaning free and flat land, and it's located on the west coast of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

What was once a sleepy fishing village has been been built up a bit with some swanky new resorts recently. But we'd like to point you to a less new, less swanky (though still incredibly nice) place that has long put Flic en Flac on the map. It's called La Pirogue, named after the small, flat-bottomed fishing boats of the area.

It has cheerful, comfortable rooms, many opening onto a palm grove and the Indian Ocean. There are all the water sports you could ask for, a spa, and good food—additional facilities are available to guests at the next-door, sister resort Sugar Beach. And you'll figure out pretty quickly why next door has the name it does. They share a strip of gorgeous beach.

La Pirogue's staff, though, is the deal-sealer. For decades now, they've had the deserved reputation of being genuinely caring, understated hosts, turning a resort on a dot in the Indian Ocean into that often-elusive jackpot island holiday and then a long, warm memory.

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