The very low construction of Guadeloupe is surrounded by a veranda which curves around a cove simulated by a basin. The dome of Martinique, in an aquamarine blue-green, overlooks friezes on which are stylized the foliage and the palms which spring up on the hills and dominate the valleys. The raw green pillars of the facade stand out against the neutral white with which the walls are covered. The pavilion shows pretty women in wax, dressed in shiny cretonne, cotton and calico. I contemplated the cushions, the doilies, the carpets worked by the diligent fingers of the young Creole girls. Josephine's virginal bedroom is faithfully reproduced, touching in its smallness and candor. Was it his Courbaril wooden bed that was found? This bed that would have housed the dreams of the one who had the most extraordinary destiny in history. A few rare letters from his hand are placed under a window.
You have to bow before the magnificence of the colors of Guyana. Its pavilion is the temple of the forest. There, enthroned the divine wood and the angelica, the snakewood and the heart-outside, the amaranth and the goupil, these woods with sonorous and evocative names, whose dazzling brilliance and polished material are a joy for the eyes. . The architect of French Guiana, Mr. Oradour, has erected a tall, slender portico, which gives the impression of being on Place des Palmiers, in Cayenne. The shafts of the columns, gilded and shiny, are veined and speckled with mahogany.
Here we are now at the edge of the Indian Ocean. The pretty temple of Reunion has all the classic looks of Latin heritage:it deliciously unites the architecture of Andalusian houses, casas from the Tagus or Douro, and farmhouses from Provence. Its pure colonnades surround a cool patio. Les Comptoirs de l’Inde are evoked by villas whose steps are guarded by two white elephants. The Hindu god, in his shell perched high, surmounts the tormented and geometric columns. A small grove greens in the courtyard. It's Mahé or Chandernagor, unless it's Karikal, Pondicherry or Yanaon.
A cubic spirit presided over the design of the Somali Coast pavilion — these cubes that Islam has established in Africa. At the top of a double balcony minaret, the crescent overlooks the dome of a marabout, the geometric edges of a bordj or a ksar. This is where the Dakanil live.
The Pacific islanders, whose huts and straw huts New Caledonia offers us, are next to the Catholic missions which have chose a monument whose pediment is covered with cartouches in monochrome, flowers, characters and symbols where Catholic universality and diversity are found.