Eve Gilles was still wearing her Miss Supranational runner-up sash when she posed for a photograph with Frederic Gilbert, president of the Miss France organization, at a local beauty pageant event in Reunion Island. The image, shared on Instagram, offered a glimpse into a summer that balanced competitive pageantry with a genuine escape to the Indian Ocean territory she has family ties to.
The former Miss France 2024 traveled to Reunion Island with her partner Simon Favier, documenting the trip extensively across social media. She described the getaway as an idyllic escape that nonetheless “went by too quickly,” a sentiment that felt earned given the itinerary she kept.
It was anything but a passive holiday. Gilles posted images and videos spanning helicopter tours, hiking expeditions, waterfalls, and dramatic landscape photography. The physical centrepiece of the trip was an ascent of Piton des Neiges, a peak rising above 3,000 meters. She and Favier began climbing at 2:30 in the morning, capturing the early stages in a video blog. About an hour in, still in darkness and headlamp lit, Gilles offered a candid assessment of her own decision-making. “I’m tired. Who told me to do this? Why does anyone listen to me?” The summit, and the sunrise waiting there, made the answer obvious.
Meanwhile, the trip carried a layer of personal significance beyond the scenery. Gilles has Reunion Island heritage through her family background, lending the visit a quality that a standard tourist itinerary would not. The encounter with Gilbert at the local pageant event, where she appeared in a white gown and tiara, connected her public role to a place that is part of her own story.
The vacation came at a natural pause in a busy competitive stretch. Gilles had competed at the Miss Supranational pageant in Poland at the end of July, finishing as first runner-up behind Philippine contestant Katrina Llegado. In an earlier post, she described the placement as giving her “a taste of victory.” Before that, she had reached the top 30 at the Miss Universe competition in November of the previous year.
What the Reunion Island trip made clear is that Gilles moves between these two registers, competition and personal life, with ease. The question now is what the next chapter of that schedule looks like once the summer ends.