I recently provided the English voiceover for the historic town centre cultural heritage trail ("Parcours Centre-Ville Historique") of Sainte-Marie, the town where I live in Reunion.
Like many places in Reunion, Sainte-Marie has a blend of maritime history, Creole culture, and architectural legacy. The town council has installed several information points where you can scan a QR code and listen in English, French or Reunion Creole to learn more about where you are and what you're seeing.
Each of the eight audio segments lasts a few minutes, but uses a musical background to transport the listener back in time.
You can listen to them below, or walk the heritage circuit yourself if you're visiting Sainte-Marie, to find out more about:
- Coastal battery & shipwrecks: learn about Sainte-Marie's maritime past
- Railway station: trains ran from 1882 to 1963
- Local figures: find out more about Noel Tessier, who married Anne Mousse - the first woman born on Reunion, and Augustin Panon, whose nickname "carpenter" was given to Ravine Charpentier
- Sainte-Marie parish and cemetery: discover what is different about this cemetery from any other on the island
- Town Hall (Hôtel de Ville): built in 1860, it has survived major cyclones
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| map of the Heritage Trail (not all stops have audio segments) |
The coastal battery ("3" on the map):
Shipwrecks off the coast of Sainte-Marie ("1" on the map):
Train station ("2" on the map):
Noel Tessier (married to Anne Mousse, whose statue is "6" on the map):
Cemetery ("7" on the map):
Parish church ("8" on the map):
Town Hall ("15" on the map):
Augustin Panon, nicknamed the carpenter:
Have you listened to the tour or walked the trail yet? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
More about Sainte-Marie:
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