It is yet to be established whether the town owes its name
to the fact that travellers used it as a stop to "
cure" their "
pipe",
or whether someone named it after his native village in France.
It has now become a residential town with some spacious houses
and an elegant shopping centre, amongst where
there is the extinct volcanic crater
of Trou aux Cerfs and the panoramic views
below takes in the plateau towns and the mountains to the north and north-west
of the island.
It is possible to climb down the 85 metres to the bottom of the wooden crater.
