Wednesday September 4th

Le Bagne - The Prison Colony

It was raining again this morning when we left the apartment but the sun has come out off and on throughout the day.  The sea is rough with quite a breeze.
We had the first period together in a classroom and then went by bus with our billets out to the Penal Colony.  It was a great visit and very informative.

  It is such a shame that Graffitti abounds throughout the country and even on historical sites like this.

James Cook discovered New Caledonia in 1774, but it wasn't until 1853 that it was annexed by France. In 1864 the first convict ships landed after a 6 month journey from France. 22,000 criminals and political prisoners arrived here eventually. The convicts were chosen to go to New Caledonia because of whatever trade skills they had, not because french prisons were overloaded.  These men were brought over specifically to build the new town which became the city of Noumea.

                                                 Inside the bakery listening to our guide.

                      Above and below, one of the four huge ovens that could cook 80 loaves at once.

      This shows the huge long pole used to extract the cooked bread from the massively hot ovens.

                       

 

                                                   Listening to our guide again

                            The only remaining photo of the bakery when it was working.

         The workshops (now used for some University classes), where convicts made furniture and other necessary items.  Where the prison is situated was once an island and the prison was completely self sufficient. There is now a bridge connecting it to the mainland.  The island had its own farm with animals for meat and eggs. There was no power on the island and beneath the ground where we stood outside the workshops was a huge water reservoir.  This water was used to create steam which drove the machinery used.

A replica of the Guillotine.  Many shudders as we heard of the punishments used for prisoners! Only a relatively small number were ever beheaded as they didn't want to eradicate too much of the labour force.

                                                                    The church

  The rear end of the church and you can see the beautiful outlook from the penal colony. It seems so incongruous that the prisoners lived such a bleak, desolate and cruel life, and yet were surrounded by such beauty.

If their sentence was less than 7 years, they were allowed to return to France when they were able to after release, but if the sentence was longer than that, they had to spend the rest of their days in New Caledonia after they were released.

Everyone agrees that this no school on Wednesday afternoon thing is such a good idea!  Bill and I had a meeting with the Principal and Deputy Principal at lunchtime and we will be finishing packing this afternoon all ready for our move to the hotel with the kids early in the morning. They have been instructed to do the same before they go to bed tonight!

Fingers crossed it will be fine tomorrow. We can't get into our hotel room until the afternoon so we will be descending on the shops along Anse Vata beachfront as soon as they open. The kids can't wait!  At 1pm we go over by water taxi to Duck Island for snorkelling until 3pm.

Au revoir until tomorrow!