Do the remains of this legendary civilization sleep somewhere off the island of Santorini? Despite the many inaccuracies relayed by Plato, several historical arguments allow to locate Atlantis in a Greek perimeter. Are the secrets of the decline of the ancient Minoan civilization engraved in the caldera?

Basil has a special place in the life of the islands. You will see it everywhere, in every window, in front of every restaurant, on every terrace... but never in your plate. Although basil grows everywhere (in pots), it is hardly used in the local cuisine. It is a decorative and lucky plant.

It is a postcard cliché and a reality in the Cyclades: bright white houses next to churches with a resplendent blue dome and golden beaches bordering a turquoise blue sea... It is easy to understand why Luc Besson shot his film The Big Blue in these islands... More precisely in the waters of Amorgos.

You will be amazed by the thousand and one ways of preparing coffee in Greece. To order it, ask for: éna elliniko, which means "a Greek". In the summer, there is nothing like an iced coffee that is drunk iced (Nescafé based) or freddo (espresso based). Coffee can be ordered without sugar(sketo), a little sweet(metrio) or very sweet(glyko).

We all know this cliché of the Greek islands: a small port, a white chapel and languid cats. These felines are indeed everywhere, especially near the fish taverns that border the ports of the Cyclades. If you give them a few bones at the end of the meal, try to do it discreetly, to avoid the reproachful eye of the manager.

30 minutes from the turbulent Mykonos, a world of memory and silence survives. This "museum island" was classified by Unesco in 1990. Delos has been inhabited since prehistoric times, but it was the Ionians, in the ^first millennium BC, who made it a panhellenic political and religious center, comparable to Olympia and Delphi.

They are everywhere in the archipelago, which is also home to one of the country's largest pilgrimage sites in Tinos, the Greek Lourdes. Moreover, the churches are sometimes so numerous that they cannot even be counted, as in Sifnos. In some islands, the Catholic churches share the spotlight with the Orthodox churches.

The mati means "the eye", meaning "the evil eye". This notion is part of a widespread popular superstition. Beware: if you suddenly start yawning, feel tired or have a headache, you will most likely be given a " se matiasan" : literally "the evil eye has been cast upon you".

The meltemi is the north-northwest wind that sometimes blows violently on the coasts of the Cyclades, especially in August. When it rises, the beaches exposed to the west can become impassable. This is especially the case for hydrofoils, such as ferries, which will be the first to be cancelled in case of strong winds.

Here, this week is sacred! The procession of theepitafios on Friday, the mass on Saturday evening, followed by a big meal and the mayiritsa (a giblet soup), and on Monday, with 50 days later a new celebration. Beware, hotels, especially in religious islands like Tinos, are often fully booked.

The karpouzi (in Greek) is the fruit of summer. Watermelon can be bought by the kilo in supermarkets and from street vendors on the roadside. And it is often the gift of the house, in the taverns, after a good meal in the middle of a hot summer. The region of Greece that produces the most is Elis, in the west of the Peloponnese, near Olympia.

Tavli is the Greek version of backgammon or backgammon. This game is very popular in Greece and is played for hours on end on the terraces of cafes. You usually order it with your drink, or you follow the sometimes colorful games played by your neighbors. Often the dice rolls are followed by flowery expressions.