industry: lime kilns, blackened, silent chimneys (square when the French were here, round during the English period). Alongside the weekly market that sells fruit and vegetables from the nearby “good lands”, there is Saint Antoine, a former sugar estate founded by Edmond de Chazal in the nineteenth century and divided up in the 1990s. The neoclassical-inspired residence with its colonnaded veranda and grounds containing ancient trees has remained in the hands of family, who strive to retain its former feel – original waxed parquet floors, identical decor with works by Malcolm de Chazal, furnishings from the East India Company and porcelain dishes. The other part of the sugar estate– the distillery with its chimney and outbuildings (former tobacco barns) – on rue Madame Azor, was acquired by a Mauritian couple, Shenaz Currimjee and Daniel de Robillard. The original architecture has been preserved and new openings have been created, flooding the interior with light and restoring the dialogue with surrounding nature. The couple, a talented creator and designer, took on the challenge of protecting the island’s architectural heritage while offering it a better future. “It’s our way of looking to the future without turning our backs on the island’s painful history,” says Shenaz, co-founder of the Ekla design studio. Rue Madame Azor (named after a charismatic factory worker activist) has become the kingdom of craftworkers (stone sculptors, carpenters, etc.), artists and designers. At Poudre d’Or, the shoreline and the sea are sculpted by the easterly winds. A stele commemorates the shipwreck of the Saint Géran, which inspired French writer Bernardin de Saint-Pierre for his novel Paul et Virginie. The book was such a huge success that the fictional characters became beings of flesh and blood to whom the island dedicated a statue and a grave. We leave behind St. Philomene Church and its cemetery among the pineapple fields, and follow the trade winds 8 : The lagoon, great for leisure and fishing, in Cap Malheureux. Le lagon, terrain de jeux et de pêche, à Cap Malheureux. 9 and 10 : A fish trap filled with stale bread is placed on the seabed at Pointe aux Piments. When it is raised, the baby parrot fish are thrown back into the sea. Pose d’un casier empli de pain rassis sur le fond marin de Pointe aux Piments. Lors de la levée, les bébés poissons-perroquets sont rendus à la mer. 11 : The peaceful bay of Grand Gaube. L’anse paisible de Grand Gaube. along the coast. This natural wilderness is barely frequented, untouched, and offers some of the most beautiful panoramas. Roches Noires fills the whole horizon to the east. With no coral reefs, the sea here is very much the Indian Ocean. There’s nothing to hold it back. 11
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