FRENCH WEST INDIES
Golf in Martinique & Guadeloupe
- What to see
Each one, Guadeloupe or Martinique, of the French Caribbean islands is a small tropical paradise and is worth a visit.
- Martinique
Columbus called it the "island of flowers". Anthuriums, bougainvillea, frangipani, magnolia, orchids, poinsettias. sprout their multicoloured shoots here and there and everywhere making even misery luxuriant. The island, rather small (64 kms long only), has two different parts.
Northern is mountainous around the volcano Montagne Pelée which erupted in 1902 killing everyone in Saint Pierre, ancient capital, out of a prisoner in his jail! Burned ruins - and the jail - from the so called Little Paris, have been preserved in the new Saint Pierre , nice quiet small city along the beach. Lush and green rainforest has invaded the slopes of the volcano and some rum distilleries are open to tourist's visits along the picturesque road passing through the forest and its big high exotic trees. On the way, the Balata Gardens show about 3000 different botanical species.
Fort de France, capital of the island, is located at the centre of the Western coast along a magnificent blue bay where yachts coming from worldwide drop their anchor before the old fortification. Out of the colourful market and shopping streets of the centre, the Schoelcher Library is the city's architectural masterpiece, a Byzantine pavilion coming from the Paris 1889 Exposition; and remembering the French abolitionist of the slavery. In opposition, at the la Savane garden where to stroll in the shade of high trees, the head of the statue of native Empress Joséphine has been cut down because her husband Napoléon re-established salvage in 1802!
In fact, la Pagerie, the exact birthplace of Joséphine, is located at the village of les Trois Ilets, on a hillock just across the bay nearby the Martinique golf course. The peninsula, facing Fort de France and the Montagne Pelée, is a natural park and the most attractive part of the island. The round the coast tour is spectacular not only for the superb views over the Diamond Rock and the beaches and creeks but also for the steep slopes of the very narrow road. It is absolutely worth the tour.
Coming back to the main road, the Route du Rhum drives to the Southern part of the island. It is flat with large plantations of sugarcane, bananas, pineapple, cinnamon and fields of guava, mango, papaya while holiday resorts take place along the beaches. It is the Sainte Anne peninsula which offers an original coastal landscape : beautiful mangrove of the English Bay , cliffs and bare rocky tables, wonderful beaches as the mythic Grande Anse des Salines.
Then the route du Rhum follows the Atlantic coast line passing along Habitation Clément, a preserved historical plantation mansion, where Presidents Bush and Mitterrand met on March 11, 1991 after the Gulf War. The road ends at the St-James rum plantation.
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 The Schoelcher library in Fort de France
St-Pierre bay, the ancient capital
Rumery,
sugarcane industry
and various rum liquors on the market
! To enlarge click pictures |
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