At the time of town planning and other aerial cable car ideas, we also remember the old network of roads in Saint-Martin. Without going back very far, in the 70s still, there was no car and everything was done on foot.
The island was then traversed back and forth and not only along the coast. The first trails were first the alpine trails taken by cows or ravines that men could take. Donkeys also frequented the paths a lot: to send from one point to another a business or a message, we sent his mule on the paths and, as the master was known, whoever received it on the other side could recover the goods and return the donkey to its owner. The paths circulated between the mountains which were more inhabited than the coast, because the economy of subsistence could be done there in the wettest and shaded parts of the island. The tubers were planted thanks to earthworks, of which the old walls have remained. We can still find the old paths: the ground hammered for so long has become so hard that the seeds can no longer sink into it: the plants cover them and hide them without being able to grow there. _HM
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