The Césaire House
The Maison Césaire, listed as a historic monument since 2014, is located on the Route de Redoute. It was acquired in 1960 by Suzanne and Aimé Césaire. On the author's death, it was sold to the city of Fort-de-France, and was awarded the Maison des Illustres label in 2019. Césaire lived there until his death in 2008. It's a low Creole house on the outskirts of town, with a wrap-around veranda leading to a living-dining room, three bedrooms and shower rooms. A study contains a large wardrobe, objects and a multitude of varied works, demonstrating the poet's openness to the world around him.
This house is one of those selected to benefit from the Loto du Patrimoine. It continues to transmit the work of its honored host through the living space it once was. It shows the author in his artistic tastes, his literary choices, but also in his daily life, just as simply revealed here, the reflection of his intimacy. It represents Césaire's thoughts, which she never let go.
To visit, please contact the city of Fort-de-France.
"The Red House
Another house that has sheltered famous people is called the Maison Rouge, just before the entrance to Cap Chevalier in Sainte-Anne. Anca and Alexandre Bertrand, journalist and painter respectively, lived here, as did Salvat Etchart, French writer and anchorman on RFO Martinique, born in Bordeaux on February 18, 1924, died on October 23, 1985. Winner of the Prix Renaudot in 1967 for his book Le Monde tel qu'il est, he moved to Martinique in 1955, but his political stance and violent criticism led to his dismissal. In 1970, he moved to Quebec, where he committed suicide in 1985, leaving behind a body of work that includes Une bonne à six, Les Nègres servent d'exemple, L'Homme empêché and L'Amour d'un fou.
The Clément House
Whoever said that walls have no ears is wrong. Walls know secrets, which they are obliged to keep. On Thursday March 14, 1991, French President François Mitterrand and US President George Bush met at the Habitation Clément in the Acajou district of Le François for a summit meeting, in front of Aimé Césaire and the Martinican parliamentary and territorial representatives invited to welcome them. This followed the previous summit meeting on Monday December 16, 1974, which had brought together French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and US President Gerald Ford at the Hotel Leyritz in Basse-Pointe. Just like his counterpart at Le Leyritz, the doctor's home, now owned by Groupement Bernard Hayot, also knows a thing or two.
Homère Clément, a mulatto born in Trinité in 1852, died in Paris in 1923, was a distiller and politician, mayor of Le François from 1885 to 1923, General Councillor from 1887 to his death and President of the General Council from 1900 to 1901 and 1906 to 1908. He was also a Radical Socialist deputy for Martinique from 1902 to 1906. During the shoot-out in February 1900, which prompted Lenin to say: "Martinique, the land of the valiant workers of Le François", Mayor Clément escaped unharmed thanks to the vigilance of his 25-year-old coachman, Émilien Amusant, nicknamed Ti-Pol, who gave up his life by heroically covering him with his body. "When you have lost everything, when you have no hope, life is a disgrace, and death a duty", said Voltaire.
The Maison Clément, which was the residence of the former mayor and his family from 1887 to 1986, is located on theformer Habitation d'Acajou in the commune of Le François, Martinique. It is surrounded on all sides by sugarcane and a vast banana plantation on a 160-hectare property. It's a sumptuous colonial building, steeped in history. It's made of wood, with a large veranda all around. The interior reflects the lifestyle of the great Martinique planters at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The distillery, founded by Homère Clément, is no longer in operation, having been transferred to the Simon factory in Dostally, another district of Le François. The premises now belong to Groupe Bernard Hayot (GBH). The new owners, through the Fondation Clément, have turned the site into a must-see tourist attraction, with a private library containing rare books that can be consulted with permission. The Foundation regularly organizes guided tours of the old distillery, where visitors can learn about how rum is made from sugar cane. It also organizes exhibitions of contemporary art. Modern art sculptures are displayed in the surrounding gardens, filled with rare tropical essences.
The Bethel House in Le François
Frantz Fanon and his brother both went to school in Le François, and stayed in the Maison Béthel, where today's Médiathèque du François is located. They stayed there for two years at the request of their uncle, teacher Eucher Fanon, one of the founding members of the Franciscan Football Club.
The House of Gaoulé
It is located in O'Mullane, a district of Le Diamant. Currently privately owned. It's a carved-stone house, built in the 16th century and classified as a historic monument in 1988. La Maison du Gaoulé has seen and heard a lot. It is known as the center of a béké rebellion instigated by colonels François Samuel Le Vassor de la Touche and Jean du Buc de L'Étang, known as Dubuc-l'Étang.
On Thursday January 7, 1717, Governor Antoine d'Arcy, seigneur de La Varenne, and his intendant Louis-Balthazar de Ricouart, both emissaries of the regent Philippe d'Orléans, landed on the island. Their mission was to prohibit the construction of new sugar mills and to prevent the sugar trade with the neighboring English islands. This did not suit the planters, who did not appreciate the measures taken by the central government. However, the newly-arrived governor and intendant were invited to dine at the dwelling of the same name as its owners, sieur Etienne Bourgeot, a wealthy béké and his wife. The Regent's delegates attended without suspicion. Then, out of the blue, other békés arrive at the Bourgeot's home, seemingly in cahoots, seize their two guests and kidnap them. They then took them to the Anse Latouche dwelling in Prêcheur, in the black sand zone. After talks between the colonial authorities and the Martinique planters, the Colonial Assembly relented, and finally gave in to the kidnappers. On Monday May 24 1717, La Varenne and Ricouart were reboarded on a ship bound for France. The mission was short-lived, the case was dropped and indifference took care of the rest. Even today, the walls and house of Gaoulé are a reminder of the békés' plot against the Regent's government, which had come to thwart certain licenses. They keep alive the revolt that followed.
The word "gawoulé" has since come to refer to this historic event when the békés revolted. It should be pointed out here that it's a tautology to say in French "la révolte du gaoulé", because the Creole word of Amerindian origin gawoulé already means rebellion.
The convict's house
With its variegated colors, it looks like a piece from a fairground game, forgotten on the sand by acrobats in a hurry to leave. But make no mistake: listed as a historic monument since 2006, it's Médard Aribot's wooden cottage that sits on the shore, and it has quite a history.
Born in Sainte-Luce in 1901, the artist sculpted the bust of Colonel Coppens. In the wake of fraudulent elections, an outraged mob brandished the bust of the colonel, who died on Sunday May 24, 1925, the same day as Charles Zizine and Louis Désétages, all three General Councillors. A bèlè sings in memory: war has been declared in Diamant! "A war that led to bloody riots and anonymous injuries.
Eight years after the unrest, Médard was officially sentenced to 15 years' hard labor in Saint-Laurent-du Maroni, French Guiana, for raiding, other indelicacy and petty theft.
When the penal colony closed in 1945, the man was released and returned to Martinique in 1953, hunchbacked and with deformed fingers. Rumor has it that he suffered the curse of having made Colonel Coppens' effigy. The fingers that had helped him were now paying for his incredible audacity.
Nevertheless, he built, alone, this picturesque, brightly-colored house, now known as the convict's house, as well as another, lesser-known house of the same type, inland from Diamant, which may still exist, if it has survived the ravages of time.
Unrecognized, surviving as best he could, the man died in Diamant, in the greatest destitution, in 1973, his family not wanting to hear from him. Now, his living house perpetuates his style between sea and land, in Le Diamant.
