On the Road to Gadji, in Païta, at the end of a path dominated by an old turbine, a small hummock with black woods and sandalwood contains one of the most beautiful restored colonial houses in New Caledonia: the Villa-Museum. It is open to the public every 3rd Saturdays of the month.
Acquired by the City Hall in 1993, the Bernanos property has become a villa-museum after the association Testimony of the past invested and renovated the site.
A Colonial House which has become villa-museum
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![exposition in The villa-museum]()
First owners of the site: Heinrich and Maria Ohlen, Paddon settlers
In various rooms of the villa, the association chose to mainly honour past rural life. Several themes brighten the rooms and the outbuildings: the pre-European period, the era of Paddon settlers (from the name James Paddon, a pioneer English legendary), the era of the world wars, the difficulties of life in the bush, etc.
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![A witness of a distant past]()
A witness of a distant past
In the shed, old agricultural equipment (corn sheller, coffee pulper, straw chopper, smokehouse) remind us, not without emotion, of a distant past. There is tangible emotion at the sight of the tomb of Heinrich and Maria Ohlen, the Paddon settlers who received the plot in 1859, upon their arrival in Australia.
