Carrefour (; , ) is a largely residential commune in the Port-au-Prince Arrondissement, in the Ouest department of Haiti. The commune had a population of 373,916 in 2003, according to the census of that year, and was officially estimated to have grown to 511,345 inhabitants in 2015. It is mostly a bedroom community for those who work in central Port-au-Prince. Before the exile of Jean-Claude Duvalier, Carrefour was viewed as a Haitian tourist destination. History Carrefour was originally a military post in the borough of Port-au-Prince. In March 1795, Louis-Jacques Beauvais and André Rigaud defeated the English troops occupying the republican port. President Alexandre Petion, one of the founding fathers of the Haitian homeland, built his private residence in Carrefour, in the locality known as Thor. The National School of Thor has been housed there for several decades. On 1 May 1813, President Alexandre Pétion founded the village of Carrefour. Following a plan drawn up by surveyor Louis Rigaud, the village was to have 20 islets and 161 sites. In 1869, the Cacos, in rebellion against the government of Sylvain Salnave, occupied Carrefour and attacked the fort of Bizoton without being able to settle there. While they were indulging in the delights of the region, Salnave lifted the Piquets of the South, who attacked them from behind and forced them to evacuate the military post. On 20 August 1889, at the height of the insurrection of the northerners against President Légitime, the vanguard of the Army of the South came to take up a position at Carrefour. The day after (21 August), the day before Légitime's departure, General Justin Carrie fought two battles and was defeated at Bizoton. In one of his development projects, President François Denys Légitime planned to link Carrefour to Port-au-Prince by a line of steamboats along the coast to Leogane. Carrefour was elevated to the rank of commune on 15 December 1982. Geography The commune of Carrefour is the crossroads through which thousands of cars, vans and trucks must pass in order to go to a part of the department of the west, the departments of the Southeast, the Nippes, the South and the Grande–Anse. Because of its geographical location and its natural environment, the urban and rural areas of the commune of Carrefour have economic and tourist potentialities. The commune of Carrefour, commonly called "kafou" by its nationals, was originally a small village founded by