La baie des Citrons
The baie des Citrons (Lemon Bay) could owe its name to an orange grove which was planted in the 1870s on the waterfront, on the current site of the Ibis hotel.
Another legend claims that it was named after six big trees, designated as six trunks, and misinterpreted as lemons instead of trunks (the two words sounding very similar in French).
The Latin Quarter
This is called after its Parisian namesake. In fact, in 1897, a tributary separated this quarter from the town just as the Seine separates Paris into two riverbanks.
Another theory is that the name has its origins due to the presence of several lawyers who set up business there.
The Trianon
In 1869, the Anse Vata road was constructed. Built with convict labour, it ran alongside a desert land. At the end of the century this was poor countryside dotted with small farms.
One of the inhabitants used to say, before returning to his farm : "I'm going to my Trianon". It was therefore as a joke that this famous name in Marseille and in the countryside came about over time.
Mount Coffyn
Coffyn is the name of a bataillon general who drew up the first city map of Nouméa. This mountain is recognisable by the Lorraine cross which stands in remembrance to the rallying of troops from New Caledonia to free France in 1940.
Mount Venus
Venus in remembrance of the 1874 installation of an astronomical mission whose job it was to study the planet's trajectory.
La vallée des colons
In 1856, one settler and 4 soldiers settled on concessions. On the 3 November 1856, they were taken by surprise and massacred by Kanaks intent on taking over the town. One of those attacked managed to escape on horseback and raise the alarm.
It is in this area that in 1938 Nouméa's first private hospital was built.
Le Faubourg Blanchot
In 1868 the construction of a road began. Barthélémy Blanchot bought the maximum amount of land he could and then resold it.
Marie Blanchot obtained from Monseigneur Fraysse the authorisation to build a house managed by "the little sisters of the poor". It is in memory of the Blanchot couple (benefactor of the poor) that this name was given.
L’Orphelinat
In 1866 a building was constructed to house the "Emperess Eugenie's orphans", who came out on the "Fulton" from France to join the colony and raise families. This name replaced that of "Fishermen's bay" (in fact the sea here is particularly rich in fish and from the beach, canoes set out to go fishing). The orphanage continued to receive the colony's orphans, both European and Melanesians.
La vallée du Génie
This area takes its name from the installation, which began in 1872, of buildings to house the management and service of military engineers. The first naval infantry garden was tranferred to this area.
La vallée du Tir
In 1863 the army set up a shooting range here.
Le Motor Pool
In this area the Americans stocked their automobile equipment.
L’Anse Vata
The Velodrome
On 15 August, the Governor Feuillet inaugurated a velodrome here on land which the town hall had given to the "Véloce Club Calédonien". During the Second World War this area became Receiving for "Receiving Station", due to the fact that the GIs had installed radio relays here.
Nouville
The hub of Nouméa with the implantation of the settler, James Paddon in 1851, Nouville was marked by the period of the penal colony. Various remains bear witness to this. This area owes its name to Nou Island, linked to the land by a dike in 1974.
Ducos
This site where cattle were kept, quickly became a camp for depaorted prisoners. Of 4,166 people deported to New Caledonia following the commune, 888 were sent here and placed in Numbo bay.
The first convoy (250 "political agitators") arrived at the end of 1872 aboard the Danaé.
A landing stage was built and this was the only means of exchanges with Nouméa. Not far away, the "baie des Dames" became the settling place for the wives and children who had come to be with their husbands and fathers. In this women's camp were 16 deportees including the famous Louise Michel (deported from the Paris Commune).
Bibliography
| « Le Mémorial de Nouméa » | Editions Planète Mémo |
|---|---|
| « Laissez-vous guider dans Nouméa » | Editions Grain de Sable (Jacqueline JULIEN) |
| « Nouméa Rétro » | Editions du cagou (Luc CHEVALIER) |
| « Le Nouméa, circuits nouméens, une page d’histoire » | Mairie de Nouméa |