Les Grands Fonds

Les Grands Fonds is the broken interior of Grande-Terre: a landscape of small steep limestone hummocks called mornes separated by hollows, formed as the limestone dissolved, with narrow lanes winding between them and small farms in the bottoms. It is easy to get lost in and hard to see across. The area was settled by smallholders after abolition and has kept a distinct rural character with its own traditions. The name is misleading: these are not deep valleys but a broken plateau, and the whole area sits only a hundred metres or so above the sea despite feeling enclosed everywhere in it.

What you actually see

• The mornes - the small steep limestone hills the landscape is made of.
• The hollows - the farmed bottoms between them.
• The winding lanes - narrow roads threading between the hills.
• The smallholder settlement - the rural community that took the land after abolition.

When to go

December to April is the driest for the lanes. Mornings are best. It is green after the autumn rains.

Honest expectations

The lanes are narrow, unsigned and genuinely confusing; getting lost is normal. There are no viewpoints or laid-out attractions. Facilities are almost non-existent.

Nearby

Morne-a-l'Eau is north, and Sainte-Anne is south.