Bellefontaine

This small town with the charm of a small fishing port owes its name to Guillaume Michel dit BELLEFONTAINE, an 18th century settler who wanted to make the region prosperous.

In 1670, Bellefontaine counted, on what would become its territory, at least 11 sugar dwellings. This figure dropped to 6 at the beginning of the 19th century so that in 1882 there were only 3 dwellings left. Thus, at the beginning of the XXth century, the city counted on its territory two distilleries. Two of these factories closed in the 1960s for economic reasons, while the third hoped to survive turned its production to cocoa. One was in Fond-Laillet, on the site of the new EDF thermal plant currently under construction, and the other in Fond-Capot. Some ruins of the latter have withstood the ravages of man and time and can be seen at a glance.

The year 2010 is to be marked with a white stone since it offers the municipality of Bellefontaine its sixtieth year of existence. In the short history of this young commune, it should be noted that in 1991, a section of the southern cliff of Bellefontaine literally collapsed, pouring into the sea millions of cubic meters of earth, at the edge of the EDF power station and without making any victims. Cut off from the world, by land, and during the security works, the trips were made by sea.