In April 1997, during my first visit to Hayti I went to see Ti Riviere Artibonite with Cedanor Henrius of St Josephs Home for Boys. 
I had seen some pictures of Ti Rivye on Peter Costano's web page about the elections of 1995. It mentioned the Palace of 365 Portes. It was this palace of Roi Christophe's which I wanted to see.
The Palace was actually the least interesting thing about Ti Rivye It is a nice old stone building, 200 years old, which seems to be currently used for minor government offices and schools. It does not have 365 portes, whether doors or windows or both.
It has possibly been restored recently. I met some foreigners from Brittany ( working for the EU ) who were restoring a fortress at Marchand Dessalines and had worked on the Iron Market of Jacmel. They claimed that stone work was a lost art in Hayti. Concrete is the exclusive building material nowadays.
It is the town itself, and the countryside around it, which are the real attraction. This is the countryside, the old countryside. In the lowlands of the Artibonite there has been continuous cultivation and settlement for 300 years. The deforestation which afflicts the hillsides just inland from the coast is mercifully absent. Those hillsides are naturally arid, and the cutting of the trees for the charcoal industry hasn't allowed the natural cover to recover. Here in the Artibonite valley there is natural replenishment of the soil thru that method of the Nile, siltation.
This picture of the river is taken from the hill of crete a pierrot. [ I didn't look up the spelling, I'm sure it is wrong ] This was one of the decisive battles in the final wars against the armies of Napoleon. General Rochambeau had the fortress surrounded for days.
Dessalines had his men go out on the open ground in front of the fort and act stupid to get the french to charge the fort. The Haytians jumped down into trenches and exposed the guns. Rochambeau had no artillery yet but was in a hurry to reduce the fortification.
After the Haytians had exhausted all of their ammunition and water they burst through the lines and escaped, making a fighting retreat during the night.
The town is clean and mostly cooled by the river. The outskirts are populated with the beautiful small country houses, having two full height doors in each wall. This allows the building to be completely opened up to the air during the daytime. There is a central plaza, with trees and play areas. A large Catholic Church and the Police station are arrayed about the plaza.
The Village of Ti Riviere Artibonite
Cedanor took me to the Market. It was my good luck that this was market day. 
Country folks from many kilometers around come into town to buy and sell. The Sister of Cedanor has a stall. I was able to rest out of the sun and quietly watch the activity of the market.
Fairly quietly, that is. Not many foreigners hang about under the shades of market la. The children, which means young girls at Market, were particularly interested in seeing a blan. They have not had many opportunities to see foreigners and are curious.
Here are some of the grown up market workers. The woman sitting with a hat in her lap, shelling peas, is Cedanor's sister. None of those pictures turned out well. She was acting shy. Her daughter wanted very much to have her picture taken tho, as you can see.
Here are some more pictures of the countryside on the way to Ti Rivye Artibonite. It is a truly beautiful place to visit. Unfortunately, no guest houses exist in the area.
Here are some pictures of Dominique Paul, met on the bus to Ti Rivye. Her papa is a tailor in town, she was on the way back home from school in Port au Prince.
name: ti_rivye.html
created: 4 January 2000
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