Exploring Martinique by land and sea
November 9: Today we visited Martinique, “the island of flowers”. This French colony gets few cruise ships, in my opinion because there are few English-language excursions available and Euros are used in trade. US dollars are only grudgingly accepted even in Fort-de-France, at poor exchange rates and with change given in Euros, so prices are very high compared to other Caribbean islands.
We were only scheduled to be docked at Fort-de-France from 07:00 until 1:00 and the Martinique Tourism Authority had been no help at all in finding an independent tour operator, so we booked a ship tour that would show us a few of the highlights, by boat and motorcoach.
Approaching the Fort-de_France dock at 06:17 am.
We have breakfast delivered most mornings – when our balcony is on the shady side of the ship it’s tough to beat having it out there. Martinique is incredibly beautiful, making it even better this morning. We’ve seen complaints about room-service breakfasts, but we’ve had great luck – excellent quality, delivered at the scheduled time.
The excursion group gathering at 07:45 – half started the loop tour by boat, the other half (including us) by motorcoach.
Our comfortable Neoplan coach was about 2/3 full, with the driver, a guide, and 2 guides-in-training.
Fort-de-France, which was first settled by the French in 1635, has a very European look to it.
According to our guide, Michael, this lovely house is haunted, and has been abandoned as a result.
The Balatta church, high on the slopes overlooking Fort-de-France, was our first stop.
To say that the roads we took aren’t motorcoach friendly is an understatement. They’re narrow, twisting and often steep, in town and as we threaded our way through the mountainous rainforest. Our driver, Roger, is very good – he and Michael quickly impressed both Cathy and I as the perfect driver-guide team.
Not all drivers on these roads are as skillful as Roger! Many, many times, corners were too narrow and tight to allow a car and motorcoach to pass, and one had to stop, and even to back up a couple of times.
A small farm along the road in the interior.
Dropping down to the sea at the town of St. Pierre.
We were met in St. Pierre by this little “road train” which took us on a tour of the town, with Michael still narrating.
Once the capital of Martinique, St. Pierre was totally destroyed by an eruption of Mt. Pelee on May 8, 1902. Although the volcano had been rumbling for months and there had been small eruptions for a few days, few people evacuated, and a total of 29,000 people were killed. Most of the current buildings are built on the foundations of buildings that were destroyed.
This is the view from the small museum.
There’s a small open market near the wharf.
The volcanic-sand beach is striking.
Our boat was waiting for us…
… and we sailed away from St. Pierre in a fairly heavy south swell that made moving around the ship (to the bar 🙂 ) a bit awkward. That’s Mt. Pelee overlooking St. Pierre.
One of the few villages we passed.
This volcanic flow shows layering from several eruptions of volcanos further south and older than Mt. Pelee.
Some of the roads dropping down from the main road to the beachfront villages are very steep.
This appears to be a powerplant but Michael was too busy pouring rum punch for me to ask about it. [Edit: it is a power plant, at Bellefontaine]
Nearing Fort-de-France.
The Fort-de-France lighthouse.
There are some really interesting old places tucked in among newer homes.
Downtown Fort-de-France.
A couple of views of the fort.
Here’s a large space at the forward part of Deck 10 that gets little use. The tinted glass that surrounds it blocks any breeze and the view.
At 1:00 pm we set sail – for a couple of minutes…
Three members of the ship’s classical string quartet had missed a ferry and the ship sailed without them. They got very lucky, and when they came running up the dock, the pilot boat took them out to the ship. I wonder if that would have happened if they weren’t all lovely young women? 🙂
Martinique very much impressed us but many of our fellow passengers disagreed. We like the character and the independence of the place, and would take a refresher course in French and carry Euros, in the belief that doing so is the key to experiencing the best of The Island of Flowers.
Certainly the tour we chose was significant in our enjoyment of the island – at $80 each is was excellent value. We talked to other passengers who paid $49 for a walking tour of Fort-de-France and felt totally ripped off.
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