By Julien Durup a student of history
France Andréa Jumeau was born on 5 December 1893 at Anse Royale, Mahé, and died on 30 April 1960. He was the son of Jean-Baptiste Jumeau better known as Titi Jumeau and Josephine Georgette Lefevre. France later became a prominent naturalist, perhaps the first Seychellois to be so. He is known mostly for his conservation work at Vallée de Mai at Praslin.
Mr. France Jumeau
His passion for natural history started when he was a planter at Saint Joseph at Anse Aux Pins Mahé, long before going to Praslin Island. It is said that he was the first person to plant coco-de-mer trees on Mahé. He planted them in a row of male and female trees in the North West to South East direction (the layout more or less like the direction the airport runway) so that they can be pollinated naturally by the tradewinds. His love for migrating and invasive birds started at Mahé. Early in life, he had a desire to create his own Botanical Garden.
Map of Praslin Showing the Location of the Vallée de Mai
To fulfil his ambition he acquired the big property of Nouvelle Découverte which comprised a big natural reserve of coco-de-mer at Praslin from Captain Georges Charles Jouanis alias “Captain LoLo, (L’eau L’eau) ‘water water’ because of his love for the sea.
Map showing Nouvelle Découverte on the far left and Vallée de Mai in the centre (Ministry of Land Use and Habitat)
The latter was a big entrepreneur and was best known for his tobacco plantation and cigarette factory at Côte d’Or, Praslin. His brand of cigarette was called “Tabac Codor.” At the same time, France purchased Cousin Island, a bird sanctuary from the Chenard family, to expand his knowledge of the fauna. He also acquired some more properties at the same time.
Cousin Island
Vallée de Mai Baptised
He baptised the coco-de-mer vale at Nouvelle Découverte as « Vallée de Mai » (May Valley) simply because he purchased the property during the month of May. The area was previously referred to as ‘Midland’.
Soon he started planting new coco-de-mer trees in his Vallée de Mai and introduced some new plants like hibiscus, an edible and medicinal plant of the mallow family, bamboos, and other types of palms. He also designed and built all the existing footpaths in the Vallée de Mai . It is also said that he introduced cinnamon to Praslin from his property of “Grand Bois” at Mahé. He also had a cinammon oil distillery and a calorifer not far from his main house. He was later dissuaded by close friends from turning the place into a Botanical Garden. However, this did not stop him from studying the coco-de-mer. He did so by keeping a detailed record with illustrations of unusual deformities of the coco-de-mer tree. Sadly, his meticulous work has never been published but, I was lucky to have had the chance of seeing a file of his work with Guy Lionnet. The latter borrowed it from one of France Jumeau’s sisters to write his book the “The Romance of a Palm”.
Map Showing the Foot Paths in the Vallée de Mai
France Became a Bird Enthusiast
It was in the marshes next to his house at Praslin and the nearby sea-shore that France studied in depth the migrating birds. He watched their feeding habits mostly during low tide in the mangrove which was full of a small brown land crab (Cardisoma carnifex) locally known as krab bon dye pini mwan or krab se mafot. He later became an expert on the following: A few types of shorebirds known locally as Zalwets (from the French alouettes de mer); the whimbrel, (Numinius phaeopus) known locally as korbizo. He also took a keen interest in the yellow bittern (Txobrychus sinensis) known locally as makak zonn a non-migratory bird. He also studied the common myna bird or Indian myna (Acridotheres tristis),locally known as martin, an invasive species which can be trained to speak like a parrot. It is said that Mahé de Labourdonnais introduced the common myna bird from the Philippines to Mauritius to eliminate grasshoppers and Pierre Poivre introduced it to La Réunion for the same purpose. Little is known why it was introduced to the Seychelles.
France also owned Cousin Island
France also frequently visited Cousin Island, which he also owned, where he studied the endemic fauna and flora. The island was the last refuge of the Seychelles Warbler, also known as Seychelles Bush Warbler, (Acrocephalus Sechellensis) a bird with a melodious voice similar to a human whistle. In Creole, it is known as timerle-de-zil (even though it does not look like a small merle) or pti kato ver.
The Seychelles Government acquired the Vallée de Mai
In 1948, the Seychelles Government acquired the “Vallée de Mai” to make it a State nature reserve and France Jumeau continued to administer the place voluntarily. In 1968, eight years after his demise, Cousin Island was also acquired by the (ICBP) International Council for the Protection of Birds now Birdlife International, with the prime objective of saving the Seychelles Warblers. Now, the island is managed by Nature Seychelles, a non-governmental association dedicated to environmental conservation. Seychelles Warblers were on the verge of extinction when it had only 26 surviving birds on Cousin. However, after successful conservation efforts there are now more than 2,500 live species with a population on Denis, Cousine, Aride, and Fregate Islands.
The “Vallée de Mai” with its diversity of endemic flora and fauna is now a national nature park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
When France was the proprietor of the Vallée de Mai, Mr. Maxime Barallon and André Vidot were employed to manage all his estates at Praslin including the Vallée de Mai, whereas Mr. Japhet Grandcourt was the coxswain of his schooner Silence.
Photo of the Bow of The Schooner Silence
France later sold the Silence to Mr. Harry Berlouis of Anse La Farine, Baie Sainte Praslin. Mr. Japhet Grandcourt later acquired the schooner Ero, she became the first local schooner to be fitted with a Lister diesel engine and the longest surviving boat that ply between Praslin and Mahé. Unfortunately, Ero is not on the street names in Providence, Mahé, where all the streets had been named after local schooners. France suffered the same fate, the Air Seychelles named one of their planes Vallée de Mai without mentioning his name. They also named one of their planes Aldabra without mentioning Walter Lionel Rothschild the man who saved Aldabra.
There is an interesting jealousy anecdote regarding former France’s house at “Villa des Flots” at Anse Aux Pins and that of ‘La Bastille’ at Ma Joie. It is said that after the “Villa des Flots” was built, one of his sisters came to visit and wrote in front of the house in big letters “ La Folie”. Afterwards, when La Bastille (his sister’s house) was completed, France came up and wrote “La Jalousie”.
Post editor’s note
Apart from Managing the Vallée de Mai, Maxime Barallon was also the administrator of Cousin Island which Mr. France Jumeau also owned at that time. He was known for his relentless effort to diminish the amount of mosquitoes on Cousin and to protect the island from green turtle poachers. Maxime was my dad and was married to Zita Confait and had seven children.
Maxime and Zita Barallon with three of their seven children
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