Beachcomber Magazine 04

MAISON DE LA VILLEBAGUE T he oldest of the dwellings has had a beautiful makeover. In its new white coat, it shimmies and strikes a pose at the end of a walkway of royal palms thanks to its new benefactor, the Terra Group that now owns some of the biggest sugar estates in the north of Mauritius alongside some heritage gems. Since the house came Terra’s way in 2010, the company, with the knowledgeable assistance of Edwige Gufflet, Director of the Aventure du Sucre Museum, has worked to restore it to what it once was, an unfussy aristocratic building with a distinguished pedigree that oncehosted thegreat and thegood. The property is on land where the Governor Mahé de La Bourdonnais planted the first sugar estate in the French colony in 1743. Dismissed shortly after, he was replaced by another native of St Malo, René Magon de La Villebague who purchased the estate and in 1759 built a residence that he named after himself. It was a bold combination of Breton manor style and the pomposity of the governor’s palace in Pondicherry. He worked hard to improve the quality of his sugar cane production, and his commercial successes triggered such huge interest in sugarcane plantations that sugarcane soon invaded all possible growing land. With virtuoso sleight of hands these sugar factories changed owners and names over the decades and centuries – with owners such as the devoted hus- band who renamed the plantation Ro- salie after his wife – before becoming the property of a company called The Mount, in which the de Rosnay Family were the majority shareholders. The varangues around the house were enveloped in these days in a literary, arty and high society breeze. In the middle of the last century, Gaëtan de Rosnay painted such wonderful paintings with a palette as dazzling as the surrounding country- side that he ended up joining the cosmopolitan members of the “Nouvelle École de Paris”. Natacha, his Russian wife, and their two sons MAURITIUS THE ART OF DISCOVERY 46 1. Holiday time for the de Rosnay Family: vanilla tea on the terrace. 2. In this narrow single room, Brigitte Bardot is said to have slept once, invited to stay by the de Rosnay brothers. 3. Straw hats in the lobby. 4. An antique prayer stool and an impressive ebony staircase. 1. Vacances sages chez les de Rosnay : thé à la vanille sur la terrasse. 2. Dans cette étroite chambre de jeune fille, Brigitte Bardot aurait dormi, invitée par les frères de Rosnay à séjourner chez eux. 3. Chapeaux de paille dans l’entrée. 4. Un prie-Dieu ancien et un impressionnant escalier en ébène. Arnaud and Joël, surfers and men of the world, with their international jet set entourage, put this exotic para- dise firmly on the map of chic and showbiz destinations in the 1970s. Joël neglected his surfboard for a pen and took to observing nature in all its glory, becoming an eminent and well-known biologist as well as a sharp futurologist. He is the author of over twenty books on the troubled relationship between man and his environment – his most recent book on epigenetics is called The Symphony of the Living World . In 2018, he was made Grand Commander of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean for his project called “ Mauritius, sustainable island .”  1 2 3