La Maison Celieres

La Maison Celieres is a wonderfully restored colonial house and garden, along with tastefully displayed stories and artifacts. It also publishes a fantastic walking tour guide, English is available for overseas visitors. That highlights the many colonial-era homes in the Faubourg Blanchot district. This historical and cultural education is completely free! You can stumble across several unique shops and pubs while walking around the lovely Faubourg Blanchot neighborhood.

La Maison Celieres consists of two unique gardens: an ornamental garden in the front and a food garden in the back. The iron gate, nicknamed "the Baro" by its tenants in allusion to the Creole name for a gate, provides access to the decorative garden. In this garden, convicts planted the trees. A latanier, a palm native to the Indian Ocean, has survived from the time of the Célières. Previously, royal palms were planted on either side of the entryway, and beds of roses and lilies were planted on either side of the paths leading to the house, defined by upturned champagne bottles or pearly shells. A food garden including a vegetable patch, an orchard, a hutch, and a chicken coop is located behind the house. There's also a sapotier (a common tree on Reunion) and a Cythera apple tree.

Location: Nouméa