Man Réaux Mall

Landscape - Pointe-à-Pitre

Inaugurated on February 13, 2017, the “Mail à Man Réaux” pedestrian mall occupies the site of the “Man Réaux” market established in the late 19th century by Emile Réaux, a Pointe-à-Pitre businessman. This market later merged with the Saint Jules market located across from the hospice (nursing home) of the same name, which has since become the Rémy Nainsouta Cultural Center. During the 1960s, it was a state-of-the art facility. In 1965 it was relocated to a broad area in the middle of the Henri IV district that was more conducive to strolling. Now known as the “Mail à Man Réaux,” this gathering place crosses the Henri IV, Chanzy, and Bergevin neighborhoods, providing a vital link between the old town and outlying areas.
Guy Tirolien Square is located here, containing a bust of the poet of that name. Born in Pointe-à-Pitre on February 13, 1917, Guy Tirolien attended high school at the Lycée Carnot in Pointe-à-Pitre, then transferred to the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, where he prepared for, and gained entry to, the École Nationale de la France d’Outre-Mer, a prestigious civil service college. During this time, he met Albert Béville and Léopold Sédar Senghor. Imprisoned by the Germans in 1940, this man of conviction became active in the Négritude movement after his release in 1942, along with his friends Léopold Senghor, Aimé Césaire, and Léon-Gontran Damas. He also helped found a review, the “Présence Africaine,” published in 1947 in both Paris and Dakar. From 1944 to 1960, Guy Tirolien served as Administrateur de la France d’Outre-Mer (Administrator for French Overseas Territories) in Africa, then as Commissaire à l’Information Culturelle (1961-1965), before being appointed as United Nations Representative to Mali (1965-1970) and Gabon (1970-1973). His main works include: “Balles d’Or” (“Golden Bullets”) a book of poems published in 1961, and “Feuilles Vivantes au Matin” (“Leaves Alive in the Morning”), a work of poems and short stories published in 1977. He spent the last years of his life in Guadeloupe on his beloved island of Marie-Galante, dying on August 3, 1988.