In the middle of the island Maurice, the garden of Grapefruit is an invitation to trips: palms, lantaniers, camphor laurels, trees elephants,... The adventuresome world of Pierre Poivre, botanist of Roy.

The island Maurice is the paradise of the Austral hemisphere and the garden of Grapefruits that of the island Maurice. His 25 hectares conceal botanical treasures invaluable: tree with spice, ebony, teak, mahogany tree, balsa, sugar cane, mango, mangosteen, date palm, nutmeg tree....

Here glides the memory of Bougainville, Commerson, and more still the French botanist in the name foreordained by Pierre Poivre, an ancient seminarian named treasurer of the island of France by Louis XV in 1767.

Curious man that this son of silky of Lyons. His wrangles with the Englishmen were worth him to lose the right hand in a shipwreck and to be imprisoned in Guernesey after improbable adventures on seas, along the coasts of India, of Antilles and China where from it brings back 200 young plants of pepper-pots. But it is not sufficient. The Dutches remain the masters outright of the road of Spices and Pierre Poivre has only one idea at the head: break the monopoly of the nutmeg tree and the clove which are negotiated at gold price. Also it imagines the unthinkable: steal " precious clean vegetables under the nose of the Dutch sentries to enrich his fatherland " to acclimate them in Mascareignes and broadcast them across the world.

And the botanist to persuade Louis XV to charter two ships, the Star of Morning and the Vigilant for an operation of 'commando ' where the commander Provost succeeds in buying off the king of islands Bandaged (Moluques, where buy the Dutch), who gives up to to him some young plants of nutmeg trees and cloves against pieces of furniture of ship.

Garden Pamplemousse L' expedition crowned with success calls other one, exceeding all hopes: in June, 1770, 400 young plants of nutmeg trees and 70 cloves disembark in Port-Louis. Pierre Poivre exults: it definitely broke the monopoly of spices. The same year, it acquires the domain of My Pleasure, the ancient ownership of the governor Mahe of the Bourdonnais. It will be the garden of Grapefruit, a centre of unsurpassed acclimation, where from the botanist broadcasts towards Madagascar and Antilles such coveted vegetables, enriching so the purse of the planters and the French dealers. It is there that it receives Joseph-Philibert Commerson, the botanist of the expedition of Bougainville which, made tired by its turn of the World, disembarks in the island of France. During two years, the botanists botanize, classify, draw up an inventory, draw and plant the garden together. Task is huge, collections do not cease expanding arriving from Africa, of India, Malaysia, Polynesia.

Since, the garden did not cease becoming rich to the rhythm of the history of the island. 85 varieties of palms of Central America, Asia, Africa and the islands of the Indian ocean share the star today: the royal palm in stipes trunks) standing as columns along the path Pierre Poivre; the palm raffia of Madagascar in the huge vaulted leaves the peeled epidermis of which gives the fabled grain of the gardeners; the palm bottle, in the paunchy body serving for fabricating instruments with percussions, or else the one that they name delicacy ", white palm of the famous " salad of the millionaire here ". But the palm returns to the talipot of Ceylon, leaves of which can attain 7 metres of wingspan. The prince among the princes of the plant world.....

You may ask your guide for the following sites:

Le Domaine de l'Etoile
Mauritius  Aquarium
Cap Malheureux
Chamarel
Curepipe
Domaine de Lagrave
Flic-en-Flac
Grand Baie
Grand Bassin
Ile Aux Cerfs
La Reserve des Mascareigne (crocodile Park of La Vanille)
La Rhumerie de Chamarel
Le Domaine de Saint Aubin
Le Domaine Les Pailles
The Giant Bats of Black river
The Most visited sites in Mauritius
Les Trois Mamelles
L`aventure du Sucre
Mahebourg
Swin with the Dolphins
Pereybere
Port Louis
Trou Aux Cerfs