Balenbouche Estate

Between Choiseul and Laborie is a 75 acre estate featuring a 200-year-old wooden plantation house in its original state with verandah and wooden shutters. Created as a cotton plantation in the early 1700s, the estate switched to sugar in 1780 when machinery was imported from England to create a water-powered sugar factory now in ruins.

Balenbouche is French for 'bullet in the mouth' and alludes to a legend of a duel fought here between two sailors over the hand of a woman. Of course, the other story is that the name derives from 'whale' plus 'mouth' and may refer to the days when these mammals gathered at the mouth of a local river.

The estate now functions as a guest house.