L’Habitation Fond St-Jacques

Some 2km from Ste-Marie is l’Habitation Fond St-Jacques, the site of an old Dominican monastery and sugar plantation dating from 1660. One of the early plantation managers, Father Jean-Baptiste Labat, created a type of boiler (the père labat) that modernized the distilling of rum. Wandering the ruins feels like exploring the heart of an old European village. The site is 150m inland from the N1, near Sainte-Marie.