Saint Paul, whose motto is "Cradle of the population and bay of the best anchorage" is the capital of Ile Bourbon, until 1738, date at which its status is transferred to the profit of the current place, Saint Denis.

On June 29, 1638, the ships Saint Alexis and Marguerite, commanded by the French, Alfonse Goubert and Grégoire Digard, anchored in the bay they named after the saint of the day: Saint Paul.

They are the first French arrived on the island of Mascarene which will be named, in 1649, Bourbon, name of the kings of France, which it will preserve until the end of the 18th century.

Will succeed them who will be the first families who have joined the Bourbon Island after taking long and dangerous maritime routes.

The ancestor of the current owners of the Villa River is among the first French to set foot in Bourbon, is François RIVIERE, who landed the Saint-Robert in May 1676. At the time the island has less 200 inhabitants.