What’s not to love about Martinique? The food is very french and very good, lots of markets for provisioning, and it’s beautiful. We anchored in St. Anne’s where we stayed before. The little town is pretty and the people are very nice although not much english is spoken here. As one guide book stated “they don’t get a lot of english speaking tourists”.
Off to town to check in, exchange some money (euros only here) and on the way back to our dinghy who do we see? Liza and Kaz from Xanadu!
We decided to rent a car and crawl over the island as last time we only saw the coast. Liza and Kaz were up for the adventure so off we went. What a revelation. The roads are plentiful and in great condition. The towns and cities are clean, pretty and very upscale. Shopping malls and urban areas everywhere. But we didn’t come to shop.
Gary set up the itinerary and the first stop was the Memorial de l’Anse Caffard in Le Diamant. This is to remember the slaves that died when a ship foundered on the rocks and is comprised of Easter Island type rock sculptures facing Guiana where they were captured and transported from.
On a side note, Napoleon’s wife Josephine was born on Martinique and is not highly thought of here. Slavery was abolished and when she came to power and influence she supported the resurgence of it on the island. There is a statue of her on the island that was vandalized and beheaded. Rather than fix the stature the head lies next to the body as a statement n’est pas?
Next stop was Burger King for some fast food. Gary was in charge, remember? Come to find out Kaz had never eaten at a BK so he was initiated.
With our arteries hardening and our stomachs full of good, greasy food we were off to our next stop Sacre-Couer de Balata in Fort de France, which boasts the same architecture as Montmarte in Paris.
From there we traveled north through the rain forest part of the island heading for Mt Pelee. We didn’t quite make it to the top of the volcano because we were running out of time so instead headed to St Pierre which was originally the capital of Martinique until Pelee blew it’s top in 1902. The eruption buried the entire city killing everyone (29,000 people) except for two survivors, one in the jail and one on a boat. Most of the boats in the harbor burned and today is a great wreck diving site. You can visit the remains of the church and fort in town.
Our last stop, as always, was to a grocery store and this being a french island it was Carrefours. Because fresh produce is so plentiful in the town markets I took the opportunity to stock up on junk food and snacks. Those can be hard to find!
We’ve decided to have our parts shipped to St Croix as the davit seems to be working. That way we don’t have to back track to St Lucia. So today we check out at customs and immigration, move up to Fort de France for an overnight and tomorrow move over to Dominica, our next island.