Reposoir (F)

An old French coffee estate at the extreme north end of Dominica overlooking the Guadeloupe channel. It gets its name from the French word meaning to repose or to rest. By the 1920s it was owned by H. Seaman in combination with the estates of Grand Fond and Delaford, which together amounted to 865 acres. These estates were divided among his daughters, with Reposoir going to one of them, and whose descendants, the Grells still own the estates. Since the middle of the 19th century the reposoir estate house, a modest traditional wooden building, stood overlooking a splendid view of the islands of the Saintes and Guadeloupe. It was destroyed by by fire on the night of 12 February 2002. It had been many years since anyone had lived there permanently. It was one of the last of its type and the estate is still without a motorable road, electric power or public water supply, giving it an atmosphere unchanged for centuries. It is reached by walking along the Reposoir to Capuchin track from Au Jen near Penville.

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