Habitation Clément, Colonial agricultural estate in Le François, France
Habitation Clément is a former sugarcane plantation site in Martinique with traditional buildings, tropical gardens featuring royal palms, ponds, and fountains. The estate includes a contemporary art gallery, historical production facilities, and a modern museum building with multiple exhibition areas.
A 1770 map by engineer Moreau du Temple shows small estates here, including Habitation Litré, later renamed Acajou. In 1887 Homère Clément, one of Martinique's first mixed-race physicians, bought the 160-hectare estate at auction. He built a distillery in 1917; a 1938 fire led to a rebuilt plant five times larger. The estate was classified a historical monument in 1996.
The estate's contemporary art collection is shown in the former economic building, where a small exhibition also covers the 1990 meeting of George H. W. Bush and François Mitterrand. The manor house keeps its original furniture, with living rooms and the office downstairs and bedrooms above. The rum brand took the name Clément in 1940, having been sold as Rhum Acajou from 1930.
The manor house stands on a small rise among old trees, with living rooms and the office on the ground floor and bedrooms above, still furnished as in the Cléments' day. The former sugar press, steam engine and distillation plant were shut down in 1988 and restored in 2005 but no longer run; cane is now pressed off the estate. Aging warehouses can be visited, while the bottling area is closed to the public.
In February 2017, a bottle from the estate's 1966 vintage was sold for €100,000, making it the most expensive rum bottle ever sold at the time; only 40 bottles of that vintage exist. The manor house also holds a small exhibition on the 1991 meeting between George H. W. Bush and François Mitterrand, held on the property after the Gulf War.
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