Petit Raffray Rural, green and cultural tourism

The name Petit Raffray may be a misnomer or misleading. It is not as small as the name implies. It is in fact quite a large village sprawling in three directions: towards Cap Malheureux, Moulin a Vent and Mare Seche and Mont Mascal. It has a population of around five thousand inhabitants, mostly planters, labourers and civil servants. It can be reached from Port Louis via Plaine des Papayes, Fond du Sac and The Vale. From Goodlands, another important village in the north, it is a few miles distant .The coastal resorts, Grand Bay, Pereybere and Cap Malheureux are also nearby.

Petit Raffray is an agricultural village cultivating sugarcane and vegetables. According to Dr Guy Rouillard, the author of LHistoire des domaines sucriers de lIle Maurice, Jean Rose Daruty acquired lands in Riviere du Rempart and built a sugar factory using vacuum for the first time to cook sugar in Mauritius in 1844.The sugar factory ceased its activities in 1865 and part of the property was sold out. The village is named after Guillaume Olivier Raffray [1757-1837] who was a rich planter and landowner in Riviere du Rempart.

Some historians say that Petit was inherited from the fact that he was the younger brother. He owned large tracts of land which included also some 10 acres in the locality known as Petit Raffray. There are the vestiges of an old well that provided water to the estate of Union Daruty. The small forest of Daruty nearby is a green oasis in a vast plain that is cultivated with sugar cane and tomatoes. There is also the Old Peoples home which is housed in a beautiful colonial building built in 1958 by a certain Mr Gowreesunkur.

The village has a new look today. It is on the path of development .It possesses all the amenities of a modern life .There are a temple , a primary school, a

recently built secondary school, a football ground ,Youth clubs and cultural associations. The houses are not so close to each other ensuring adequate space for air and gardening and other activities. The trees and the plants guarantee fresh and pure air that revitalises the senses and health of the inhabitants. The green and fresh vegetables and the fruits such as mangoes, pineapple, papaya, guava, lemon, cucumber and water melon give the village a specificity of its own. Fresh cow milk is available for there are still some families indulging in cow keeping. One may with a bit of luck land there on a day a cow has given birth to a young and taste of the Fenousse [a boiled mixture of a cows first milk with sugar and spices]. Petit Raffray also serves as a training ground for tomato growers and planters.

They may learn the treatment of tomato from its growing till it is ripe and ready for sale. The village provides tomatoes to the villages in the north. They are plucked green and placed in baskets. Gradually the contents are transferred into bags. The planters have a big shed or hall where they keep the tomatoes dry spreading them on gunny bags and covered. The tomatoes are ripe after a few days, pending the season and the thickness of the layers. The denser is the layer the sooner the tomatoes ripen. They are then sorted out and graded and put in boxes to be taken to markets for sale.

Petit Raffray offers opportunity for a lot of activities .The place is ideal for walking and hiking .Long distances can be covered on foot and at the same time appreciating the different views that unfold themselves to the eyes. Colourful vistas that compel a stop and a long stare. The walk among sugar cane fields, tomatoes and sometimes small bushes is full of sensation and audio and visual delights. The smallest plants or tiniest animals that come across can give food for thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. Thoughts of diverse kinds come rushing to the mind when boys and women are seen collecting fodder or

plucking vegetables. It is sheer pleasure to watch children returning from school, the oldest playing football or volley ball, the girls practising badminton and other soft games in their front yard.

A bicycle ride or a drive in the village is highly entertaining. Cake vendors posted at almost every shop corner sell hot chilly cakes, dholl puri and farata with butterbeans curry and other oriental delights that tickle the palate. The ride affords a splendid view of the fauna. Birds, some innocuous reptiles, bats, mynas, dove parrots, red birds, and other species and colourful butterflies tripping from flower to flower are full of fun and frolic. The village is peaceful and calm and with a beautiful environment is ideal for well being therapies and soothing exercises.

The icing on the cake is the celebration of festivals namely Maha Shivaratri, Holi and Divali: the music, the colours, the processions and the pomp and pageantry. Everyone desires to be one with the participants and get lost in the divine ambiance or the ecstatic feelings that the bhajans and songs evoke Almost every evening passing by the temple or the different baitkas the waves of sweet and melodious kirtans inspire the mind and purifies the thought. The sunsets and the sunrises are other delightful moments to be enjoyed. The sunset has got an exquisite cachet. The whole village basks in its different colours. There is a certain cacophony coming from afar. The cattle mewing, the buses horning, the children shouting and babies screaming or mothers calling for their kids convey the picture of a real rural life.

It is a village like all other villages here the inhabitants are hospitable and always welcome visitor with a smile. http://www.defimedia.info/news-sunday/magazine/item/10860-petit-raffray%E2%80%93-rural-green-and-cultural-tourism.html