Au Revoir Martinique

We love the French islands of St. Martin and Guadeloupe because the people are friendly, especially if you attempt to speak French. And, the food is amazing, particularly the crepes, croissants and baguettes. Martinique, our third and last French island was no exception.

We spent 10 days there and here are my favorite memories:

The murals of women in St. Pierre - Mount Pelee erupted early in the morning on May 8, 1902 as people were going to church. The entire city of St. Pierre, known as the Paris of the Caribbean, was wiped out in minutes. It's unbelievable to think that any community could be rebuilt, but they did. The area is green and lush because of the volcanic soil and the town has good restaurants, a very tall dingy dock, and a thriving market. As we walked around St. Pierre, what stood out to me were several murals of women around the town. These iconic images, called Les Pierrotines by Anabell Guerro are a tribute to the women of Martinique's first capitol.

Kids - We were doing our usual walk around a new town on a Sunday in Schoelcher and ran into a little kids soccer tournament. It brought back many memories of our boys playing soccer with all of their friends. They were definitely more interested in the after-game snacks. School continues on all of these islands well into June and we know this because they all wear uniforms wherever we've been. The afterschool past time is playing on the docks. They love to jump off the docks, race on the docs and even play ball on the docks.

Rain - When we first arrived in Fort-de-France, the Capitol of Martinique, it started raining. We walked around the city and did a little shopping for boat supplies. It was raining so hard that we ended up at a Mexican restaurant for lunch because we couldn't really go anywhere. It was very good, by the way. When we got back to our dinghy, there was five inches of water in it. We had to go back to the catamaran very slowly because it was so heavy. (photo is Fort-de-France after the rain as the dinghy filled with water was boring)

No trash and Dr. Who toilets - Martinique stood out as one of the cleanest islands we visited. They have trash and recycle cans everywhere. Fort de France was particularly clean for a large city. And I was obsessed with their public toilets. You pay 10 or 20 cents and the door opens like you're getting beamed up to another dimension. After you're done, the door opens and the entire "porta potty" is cleaned before the next person is "beamed up." I am obviously entertained by simple things. (OK - this photo of the toilet is boring, but I’m still enamored by them.)

Early morning activities - We get up with the sun because we go to bed with the sun as we don't turn on lights in the evening to save battery power. The French get up early! At each beach town, locals go out in the water by 530 or 600 each morning and they chat away. Many of them tread water together out among the anchored boats. The fisherman are up then too. They work together with huge nets to bring in their daily catch. We were asked to move by fishermen two times because they wanted to cast their nets where we were anchored. They were definitely the bosses.

A little personal time - There are barber shops on just about every block in Fort de France, so Joe took advantage by getting a haircut. He said it was the best haircut he's ever had. I watched the guy. He was so meticulous. Very different than the quick #5 Joe gets at home. Then I took advantage of a local salon and got a wonderful massage in Anse Matin at Sylvie's l'institut Perle Zen Et Bio.

Pizza and Bongos - While we were ready to continue our sail south, we were very sad to leave Martinique. On our last night, we ended up getting pizza at a roadside stand called Al Dente's that had excellent pizza. We went back to the boat and I sat out on the bow and listened to someone playing bongos on the beach. It was "super" (said with a French accent.) No photo of pizza because we ate it and it was too dark during Bongo time. However, here’s one of many beautiful sunsets in between pizza and bongos.