Réunion (French: La Réunion) is a French island of about 800,000 population located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) south west of Mauritius, the nearest island. Since August 2010, the Pitons, Cirques and Remparts of the island, covering more than 40% of its territory, feature on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas départements of France. Like the other overseas departments, Réunion is also one of the 26 regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic with the same status as those situated on the European mainland.
Réunion is an outermost region of the European Union and, as an overseas department of France, is part of the Eurozone. Due to its location in a time zone to the east of Europe, Réunion was the first region in the world where the euro became legal tender