Newly elected Miss France 2026 Miss Tahiti Hinaupoko Deveze blows a kiss as she reacts after winning the Miss France 2026 beauty pageant at the Zenith, in Amiens, northern France. Photo: AFP / Sameer Al-Doumy
The announcement of the two Pacific winners for Miss France 2026: Miss Tahiti Hinaupoko Devèze (French Polynesia) and first runner-up Miss New Caledonia 2025, Julie Collet.
French Polynesia and New Caledonia have secured a double victory at the weekend with the two top seats in the 2026 Miss France pageant.
At the ceremony, held on Saturday in Amiens (France), 23-year-old Hinaupoko Devèze was crowned Miss France 2026.
Crowned Miss Tahiti in 2025, she is a graduate in psychology with a mixed heritage (her mother is from the Marquesas Ua Pou island, in Nuku Hiva).
There were outbursts of joy both in Nuku Hiva (Marquesas) and on the main island of Tahiti, where public screening of the ceremony had been organised.
"We're on top of the world. She is perfect, a superb representative of our country," an elated French Polynesia President Moetai Brotherson said.
French Polynesia is no stranger to Miss France crowns: before Devèze, over the past fifty years, five Miss Tahiti have won the French contest.
The record goes back as far as 1974 with Edna Tepava, followed by Thilda Fuller (1979), Mareva Georges (1991), Mareva Galanter (1999), and Vaimalama Chaves (2019).
Miss Tahiti Hinaupoko Deveze (L) reacts next to Miss Nouvelle-Caledonie Juliette Collet (R) as she wins during the Miss France 2026 beauty pageant at the Zenith, in Amiens, northern France. Photo: AFP / Sameer Al-Doumy
This year, the second runner-up is Miss Normandy and the first runner-up is Miss New Caledonia 2025, 22-year-old Julie Collet.
Commenting on her mixed heritage, Collet said she had "one foot in a field of lavender, the other in a field of yams".
"If one day, someone tells you that you are bizarre, then be as bizarre as possible", she told the public.
Collet's performance was hailed by New Caledonia's government.
In a media congratulatory release, it said Collet has "touched" and "brought together" New Caledonians.
"She has reminded us that our youths are talented, generous and ambitious. She had made us proud.
"Her crowning brings honour to the Pacific's cultures."
The score was established by a jury and suffrages expressed by the public.
