Transat Jacques Vabre

Three centuries ago, Gabriel De Clieu, an infantry captain, exported a coffee plant to Martinique. It was from this plant that coffee later spread to South America. On the occasion of the Transat Jacques Vabre 2021, Stan Thuret, Mathieu Crépel and their Class40 Everial embarked with them “Gaby”, a coffee plant entrusted by JDE to Le Havre, and which has arrived in Fort-de-France.

On November 4, in the departure town of Le Havre, a delegation of JDE and Jacques Vabre coffees delivered to Stan Thuret, skipper of the Everial ship, a coffee plant destined to cross the Atlantic. Her little name from him? “Gaby”, in reference to Gabriel De Clieu. It was this sailor from Dieppe who made the first crossing of coffee plants in the 1720s. At that time, it was the King of France Louis XV who entrusted him with this plant, which came from the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Gabriel de Clieu’s journey to the West Indies is epic, but he finally arrives in Martinique, with his coffee plant intact. It is the first to be planted on the American continent. Three centuries later, the original history of the Route du Café repeats itself with Stan Thuret and Mathieu Crépel.