Mon Plaisir is the name given to the estate created by Mahé de Labourdonnais when he was appointed as the French Governor of Isle de France in 1735. A year later, he created a vegetable garden intended to supply vegetables to his household, to the town of Port Louis, and to passing troops calling at the colony.
Labourdonnais created an Experimental Garden using mainly food plants. The garden was also used as a nursery for the planting and acclimatization of plants of botanical and economic importance sourced from diverse parts of the world. A major introduction was the Cassava (manioc) which was brought from Brazil to provide food for the population.
However, Labourdonnais abandoned Mon Plaisir when his wife passed away.
In 1739, the French East India Company took possession of Mon Plaisir and shortly afterwards, almost the entire estate was planted with mulberry trees in the hope of establishing a silkworm industry.
From 1746 until 1753, Mon Plaisir was virtually abandoned until the arrival of a horticulturist; Jean Baptiste Christopher Fusée-Aublet, sent to Mauritius to establish a drug house and to create a botanical garden. Fusée-Aublet lived first at Mon Plaisir but was unhappy there and transferred all his plant collections to Le Réduit, the home of the Governor.
When the Royal Government took over control of the island in 1767, the Intendant of Isle de France; Pierre Poivre, occupied Mon Plaisir in his official capacity. In 1770, Pierre Poivre purchased Mon Plaisir with the intention of starting a Botanical Garden. He was the creator of the present Garden, since in addition to a nursery for the acclimatization of the precious nutmeg and clove plants, he also collected numerous plants from other regions and as many indigenous plant species as he could.
From its modest origin as a vegetable garden Mon Plaisir was transformed into the oldest Botanical Garden in the Southern Hemisphere under the leadership of many personalities.
When the British took over the island in 1810, the Chateau Mon Plaisir as it is today, was rebuilt completely in 1823 to be the residence of the Director of the Garden.
But various other people resided in the house. Among them is Adrien d’Epinay who acquired it in 1836.
The building also served as a place of isolation during the cholera epidemic in 1889.
This building is classified as National Heritage in 1951.
In 2024, a major rehabilitation project is under way. The Chateau is expected to house an interactive museum, a conference centre and visitor’s centre, amongst other objectives.