 According to "Le Français de la Réunion", a dictionary written by literature professor Michel Beniamino, this term in effect forms part of a noun phrase that takes on a particular meaning when it is associated with the word "lames" in the French spoken on Réunion.Thus, the "battant des lames" would be "the part of the coast subjected the action of the waves".Consequently, the meaning is close to what is called a foreshore in Metropolitan France.