A friend pointed me to Habitation Murat, billed as Marie-Galante’s Ecomuseum, and my guidebook contained its hours of operation. I arrived about an hour before the afternoon closing and enjoyed the stunning view from what remains of the impressive 18th-century chateau and sugar-cane mill. However, the surrounding ruins of outbuildings remained largely a mystery, as no other information or signage was available. All of the renovated buildings were firmly shuttered, with no indication of contents or hours.

On a guess, I returned the next morning. Sure enough, the bibliotheque (library) was open, with a map of the site and several pages of history posted under plastic on the wall. However, I was forbidden to photograph these for later perusal, and nothing was handed out. Promptly at 1 p.m., the lights went out and the building closed.

This experience was fairly typical of tourism on Marie-Galante, a sleepy island in the French West Indies, where the slow pace will appeal to a certain type of tourist. Indeed, its attraction lies in its lack of development.

You can drive for miles as waves of sugar cane alternate with open fields of placid cattle  — and never see another vehicle. As you look from the coastal road toward the gentle ridge in the center of the island, you see no signs of habitation, nothing but green. The peace is profound.

There is a limited choice of places to stay, from rustic to more sophisticated. I opted for the former, the Village de Menard on the northern tip of the island, with 11 bungalows of various sizes. My studio had a high-ceilinged bedroom and bathroom with shower (not a given in France!), with a covered outdoor patio featuring a plastic table and chairs, a stovetop, refrigerator and kitchen sink. The place offered a charming extension of the peaceful, bucolic feel of the island. Each bungalow was trimmed in a different color, and during the night, the silence was virtually absolute.

Visitors desiring a more typical island resort with tennis courts and a large pool might stay at the Hotel Cohoba, a member of the French Caribbean chain Des Hotels & des Isles. Its grounds, however, were nearly deserted when I visited and saw only a solitary couple waiting for lunch in the dining room.

The endless fields of the green, reed-like sugar cane that decorate Marie-Galante are no accident. Once this 61-square-mile island was the capital of a sugar-cane empire, squabbled over by three European countries and bringing fortune to landowners such as Dominique Murat and his children.

At its peak, from 1800-1840, sugar-cane processing sprinkled the island with windmills, whose bulky remains still loom beside the roads. They earned Marie-Galante, originally named by Christopher Columbus for his premier ship, a new soubriquet, “Land of 100 Windmills.”

The Habitation Murat is but one instance of this once-booming industry. At the turn of the 19th century, more than 200 slaves provided fodder for its mills, powered both by wind and by animals. In 1835, the whole island had 13,188 inhabitants, 10,116 of whom were slaves.

On this visit, Marie-Galante’s lone renovated windmill, the Moulin de Bezard, could be located easily, but again, information was not readily forthcoming. A sign warned tourists not to approach the windmill without a guide. That individual, however, first forced me to make a sugar purchase if I wanted the tour, then cadged a tip. When I hesitated, he explained that the government had cut funding for his spiel, and he now operated as a volunteer. Certainly, his practiced                                                                         description  added greatly to my visit.

The salable items made from the cane — sugar, syrup and rum — were produced through the milling process: Cane was crushed and rendered into liquid, which poured through underground viaducts to processing plants. The Moulin de Bezard continued to operate until 1941, when it was the second to last windmill to close on the island. The site was restored in 1994, complete with tiny slave houses that each provided a rude home to some 10 people.

Not far away was the Distillerie Bellevue, which originated as a sugar producer in 1770.   It continues to produce rum, at a higher proof than many competitors, although the bottling is done on the mainland of Guadeloupe, a 45-minute boat ride away. Again, the accommodations for tourists are not many; one can saunter about the distillery without understanding much of what one sees, then return to the gift shop for a spiel from the young woman at the cash register. She maintained that renovations are planned for the next few years, so the old windmill and distillery can be compared with the new one, and so the bottling will take place on site. Tourism on Marie-Galante is in a state of hopefulness.

Its main towns continue the rustic theme. Grand Bourg, the largest, sported a series of “snack bars” along the beach next to the dock. A corner bar, the Ornata, cheerfully served up Planter’s Punch and beer. I ended up having dinner at Village de Menard’s restaurant, the Oceanite, where the only choice was the islands’ chewy spiny lobster, with lettuce and tomato. Later I discovered dining was better in Saint-Louis, a genuine fishing village where several eateries serve melt-in-the-mouth fish.

The island sports a number of well-marked walks. The one I tried, near Village de Menard, is supposed to overlooks a series of cliffs. Though the trail was well-maintained, like most on the French islands, I never did find the cliffs. (The hostel’s brochure somewhat misleadingly has Photoshopped in turquoise water next to an aerial photo of the buildings.)

Getting to Marie-Galante is part of the excitement — a boat from Guadeloupe over sometimes surprisingly rough seas docks briefly at Saint-Louis, but coming back you must leave from Grande Bourg.The staff at Village de Menard cheerfully met me on my arrival and drove me to my departure.

Marie-Galante offers the traveler a plethora of peace and tranquility, as well as the adventure of digging up history on one’s own, especially if you speak French.

Happy Traveling!

Captions: 1. Preserved but not restored, the moody chateau of the Habitation Murat dominates a Caribbean hillstop. 2. Towering sugar cane and placid cattle underline the island’s bucolic nature. 3.The island’s only restored windmill, Moulin de Bezard, offers a glimpse into the area’s past. 4. The Distillerie Bellevue offers its high-proof rum in hand-painted bottles. 5. A delicious meal of parrotfish bathed in fragrant bouillon is served at informal seaside eateries in Saint-Louis. 6. Leaving Guadeloupe astern, the Gold Express ferry speeds over surprisingly rough seas to Marie-Galante, a voyage of 45 minutes. (Photography by Thomas Simonet)