Trou de Madame Louis

Useful Information

Location:	Anse-Bertrand 97121, Guadeloupe. From Anse-Bertrand follow D122 north 1.7 km, turn left, road ends at Labord’ Beach, stop after 280 m trail through the bush to the beach. (16.485838, -61.497291)
Open:	no restrictions. [2025]
Fee:	free. [2025]
Classification:	Sea Cave
Light:	n/a
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Trou de Madame Louis, Tel: +33-.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

Description

Trou de Madame Louis/Trou à Man Lwi (Madame Louis’s Hole) is a small sea cave located at a beach and easily accessible. This remote beach was her favourite bathing spot and so it was named after her. While this story is quite unspectacular, the site is not. There is a beach with a sort of cliff protruding into the sea separating the beach into two parts, and there is a sea cave trough this cliff, connecting the two parts again. The cave is located slightly above sea level and is usually easy to traverse, but at high tide and when the waves are high, water flows through the cave and it is extremely dangerous to enter it. Fortunately it’s not necessary to use the cave, the cliff ends on the beach and so it is possible to reach the other side simply walking on the sand.

But from the geological side the site is quite interesting. Why is the cave in a 90° angle from the direction of the waves? Sea caves form by the erosional forces of the waves, so they always develop in the direction in which the waves hit the rock, that’s a no-brainer. But here the caves rund in a 90° angle, in the wrongest possible direction. We have no explanation, we can only guess that the rocks here were extremely soft and thus easily eroded even if the water did not hit directly.