Sentence:  To many a Frenchman - they came 95 years ago , colonized , and stayed until Laos became independent in 1953 - the land had been even more delightfully tranquil than <WSD>Tahiti</WSD> . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  an island in the south Pacific; the most important island in French Polynesia; made famous by Robert Louis Stevenson and Paul Gauguin