Guadeloupe

Geographic search

Search by city

GRANDE TERRE
BASSE TERRE

Les Abymes

Lodging
Home exchange
Restaurant
Car rental
Leisure
Places to visit
Les Abymes

According to the famous Père Labat, This city's name comes from the thick and pestilential fog commonly called " pall of savannas " which covered this part of grounds inserted under the moisture of mangrove.  It shares the area of the Grands Fonds with the communes of Sainte-Anne, Gosier, Morne à l'Eau and Le Moule. Surrounded by marshes and mangroves in the west, it is marked out by successions of mounts or " mornes ".

Helped by the economic advancement , a great part was filled and cleansed, which made it possible to off-set the old town centre located at Morne Miquel towards its current site. This new site will give the commune its own identity, apart from Pointe-à-Pitre. Various events marked the Abymes life : The " camage of Baimbridge " (anti-slave combat of 1802) and the strikes of the sugar activity which paralysed the economy. In 1996 the new airport " Caribbean Pole" opened its doors and in 1997 the Pont de l'Alliance was inaugurated, the old airport remaining for the regional flights towards Martinique and Saint Martin. Formerly rural, the city of Abymes today has considerably  developed on the industrial and commercial level (project of Dothémare).

Multiple sporting and cultural events take place there regularly. The city has a stage of 15000 places where competitions of athletics of very high level are organized. There is also the Regional Center of Physical and sporting Education (CREPS), the inter-commune swimming pool, the golf school, etc... The traditional sports hold also an uncontested place, in particular the cockfights and the pulling oxen contests. Furthermore, the commune presents all year long a programme of festivities such as the " léwoz ", the districts festivals, the artistic shows and especially the carnival of February, the traditional festival of flowers in March and the employers' festival in December