The waters were rich in fish and the year-round climate – Seychelles lies beyond the Indian Ocean cyclone zone – was conducive to the establishment of small plantations where, until slavery was abolished in 1835, enslaved Africans often did most of the work growing food.
When these first European settlers arrived in the Seychelles in the 18th Century, they found an uninhabited string of islands blessed with rich abundance. Some survived, and they would become central to Seychelles' fragrant, spice-laden cuisine. Poivre's dastardly act of horticultural piracy nearly came to nothing: in 1780, the island's governor destroyed the spice garden when he mistook an approaching ship for an enemy vessel: the spices were too valuable to fall into enemy hands. Eager for France to join the lucrative global trade in spices, the French colonist Pierre Poivre sent clandestine expeditions to the spice islands of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and the Moluccas (Dutch East Indies) to steal spices so that they might be grown in Seychelles. Le Jardin du Roi began life in 1772, barely two years after the first French settlers had arrived to establish the fledgling Seychelles colony.
Right next to the entrance, nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) grows wild and free. Guided trails wind past coconut palms and cinnamon, avocado and jackfruit. More than 120 different species of spices and fruits grow here across 25 hectares that face down towards the sea.
CUISINE ROYALE DUO WINDOWS
Anchored by a graceful 19th-Century home of white wood, soaring ceilings and big windows designed to catch a cooling mountain breeze, Le Jardin du Roi is a window on so much that is good about traditional Seychelles Creole cooking. In a steep valley high on the eastern slopes of the Seychelles island of Mahé, the spice garden of Le Jardin du Roi tells a story of unimaginable variety.
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