Mauritian Jon Rabaud’s thriller The Blue Penny, recently released in cinemas, takes place entirely at Eureka, where influential businessman Harry Theodore marries off his daughter… In real life, this mansion and its pavilions sometimes host weddings, conferences, professional meetings, concerts and shows… A few facts about this place of history and culture.
Eureka is a house steeped in history and anecdotes, which came close to disappearing several times under the onslaught of cyclones, and then in 1985, under the speculative threat of property developers. JMG Le Clézio wrote about it in Un voyage à Rodrigues: “This house is my family’s most important asset, and now it is destined to be broken up and sold in small parcels. The Nobel Prize winner also evokes this house in The Gold Seeker, Alma or Revolutions…
Finally, Jacques de Maroussem, his wife and in-laws managed to buy her back in 1985. To finance renovations to the “old, patched-up ship”, they opened it to the public in 1986 , and a month later, Prince Andrew stayed there… “He was still approachable at the time”, says Jacky de Maroussem with a wry sense of humor. At the time, it was still open to the public ,” says Jacky de Maroussem with a sparkling sense of humor. “We worked like slaves in this house! We opened all 109 French windows. Where there used to be a string of bedrooms, we created different lounges (the music room, the chinoiserie room, the Paul & Virginie lounge…) I think that over the years we’ve succeeded in reinventing a habitat that brings together all the components of the Creole art of living, in its influences and its knowledge.”
Tinkered old boat
The veranda now occupies just three sides, but overlooks sumptuous gardens and the old-fashioned kitchen. The table d’hôte serves up intoxicatingly scented dishes, while the house is ashowcase for antiquesand objets d’art. Jacky tells us about a round table stamped with the Pavillon de l’Étoile, Sir Henri Leclézio’s silver soup tureen and the magnificent Pleyel, which will celebrate its centenary in 2024, albeit in silence.
Eureka owes its name to M. Reculé, who obtained the concession in 1754. From 1793, this “spice and cane” property belonged to the Montmirails fleeing the French Revolution, before being sold in 1812 to the Robinsons, Englishmen who wanted to get closer to the Governor. In 1836, they built the bourgeois house we know today.
Twenty years later, they sold the property to the solicitor Eugène Leclézio, future head of the MCB bank and father of the first Mauritian chief judge Sir Eugène Leclézio and Sir Henri Leclézio, a lawyer, member of parliament and one of the most influential captains of industry… If the latter welcomed the future King George V, three other generations of the royal family of England would make the panelling crackle…