Fodor's Expert Review Domaine de Séverin Distillery

At this historic rum distillery, a new "Petit Train" crosses the plantation at 9:30, 10:30, and 11:30 am and again at 2 and 3 pm. (Hours are abbreviated in the low season, as is the train schedule.) The train passes by crayfish ponds (they farm the jumbo ouassous variety), golden fields of sugarcane, the distillery's working waterwheel, and the Big House, the former mansion of the Marsolle family, which has owned the habitation since 1928. The impressive great house, white-pillared with verandas on two stories, is now a museum open for touring. The estate is so picturesque and atmospheric—even a white gazebo with a red roof—that it was recently a film site for the Franco-British series Murder in Paradise. A combination tasting room and gift shop sells rum, rum punches (liqueurs), spices, and hot sauces. The simple, open-air dining room here has a good menu and sometimes offers jumbo crayfish.