Vanuatu was influenced a fair bit by the French until the locals woke up to themselves a few decades back, staged a mini revolution, and kicked the frogs out. The result is a cool little place not too screwed up by the outside world … good French food can be had for about a quarter the price of nearby New Caledonia and there's loads of WWII wreck dives if you’re into that. Beaches aint too bad either.
^ Vanuatu is part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire” so plenty of active volcanoes about … earthquakes are common too and I was woken most mornings by a rattling hotel room