The washed-up wing flap believed to be from missing plane MH370 has departed Reunion Island for forensic testing, leaving in its wake a remote community stunned by sudden global fame.

The wreckage that washed up on the Indian Ocean island left Reunion's Roland Garros Airport aboard a Paris-bound Air France flight on Friday night.

Before the barnacle covered mysterious flaperon was found on a pebbly beach, the island was a relatively unknown speck of inhabited volcano off the east coast of Madagascar.

Now dozens of journalists from around the world have flooded the French territory.

Local newspaper Le Journal splashed the words "La Réunion au centre du monde" (Reunion at centre of world) on Friday's front cover next to a photo of a bewildered looking visiting TV crew. The paper ran a four-page MH370 inside special.

Newsagent owner Frederik Varin in Saint-Denis, the island's largest town, says all the attention is big news in little Reunion.

However Mr Varin is quick to point out that it's not just the plane wreckage and international attention that has the town chattering.

"Tomorrow the volcano will be on the front page," he says.

Reunion's famed Piton de la Fournaise volcano erupted with lava flows on Friday.

With a population of about 850,000, Reunion is surprisingly large and well developed for its location 10,000km south east of Paris. But as is common with many remote towns around the world, Reunion Island seemingly haemorrhages its young population.

Playing guitar with his friends on a Saint-Denis beachhead at sunset, Marc Mnemosyne laughs about his hometown's new fame. He grew up in Saint-Andre, the very beach where the MH370 wreckage was found.

"Saint-Andre is a shithole so it's funny it's now the centre of the world," he says.

"Reunion is such a tiny island I would never have believed [the wreckage] would have washed ashore. And right where I learnt to play guitar," Mr Mnemosyne says.

The Parisian says he left Reunion to find work on the mainland as a sound engineer, something he wouldn't have been able to pursue had he stayed.

"Almost everyone I knew when I was a teenager left. Everyone who wanted to study. But many of them have come back," he says.

Mnemosyne's friend Ben Vodinh is playing the ukulele and singing Stairway to Heaven.

He jokes that Reunion island used to be only famous for surfing and shark attacks.

He says it's unusual for any rubbish to wash up on Reunion's beaches because of its isolation and lack of nearby shipping routes.

Newsagent Mr Varin is confident more wreckage linked to MH370 will show up

"It's just one piece on one island. They will find other pieces on other islands," he says.