Beachcomber Magazine 04

MAURITIUS THE ART OF DISCOVERY 54 other President of the Council by the English governor. Two clans formed around Sir Henry and Sir Eugène when they separated their fortunes in what Jacques de Maroussem calls the “ dirty trick ”. One kept the estate and the second re- turned to France with a huge sum of money that he soon squandered. Jean-Marie Gustave came from this branch of the family, born after his father had left the family house at the age of thirty. The Eurêka Estate became the centre of various “ pacts with the devil. ” In a famous stock exchange deal, Léon, head of the sugar oligarchy in 1920, sold the island’s entire sugar harvest to their distributor Tate & Lyle, pocketing a very tidy fortune indeed. The following day, the price of sugar plummeted! A great-grandfather and his wife who produced seventeen children did not make future relationships among quarrelling family inheritors any easier! Another male family member, an equally important sugar baron, left the property to his five daughters on condition that they never married. But Aunt Germaine, declaring that “ she couldn’t resist it ”, married and left the estate in the hands of her sisters. They included the legendary Aunt Sissi who died at the age of ninety-six, triggering more major manoeuvring and dirty tricks over the inheritance between her 104 nephews and nieces and her sole heir! One particular grandfather was a tireless builder and declared his intention to demolish Eurêka and construct 32 villas in its place! After much making and breaking of alliances, Jacques de Maroussem managed to persuade the various beneficiaries to let him buy the residence in 1986 and of course it was the savings of his mother-in-law, born Le Clézio and still living in Eurêka, that funded the work and the opening to the public of this house where the whispers of so many secrets can still be heard.  13 14 15 