Martinique by born2travel.it

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23 March Fort de France (MARTINIQUE)

At dawn we enter the territorial waters of Martinique. The whole island is covered by mountain ranges among which the summit of the Pelée volcano stands out.

We land at Fort de France, the main town, because one cannot speak of a capital in this French possession.

Fort de France is lapped by the warm waters of the Caribbean; its town centre, with the St Louis fort, the very colourful fruit market and the gardens of "La Savane" are a real delight for the eyes.

Its busy and narrow little streets are lined with anonymous offices, department stores and crumbling early-1900s buildings with wrought-iron balconies.

We begin our visit at the usual post office... naively I hoped to find some stamps, perhaps for collectors, from Martinique itself but soon the employee, almost annoyed, answers me, acidly, that they only have French stamps because here we are in France! It seems to me that I am in the Caribbean but this thing will come back several times during the day almost as if it were a boast for them!

I feel bad when all day I can't catch sight of even one Martinique flag, only French tricolours! At least in New Caledonia the local flags waved... and they even had their own stamps!

The Bibliothèque Schoelcher is the most visible landmark of Fort de France because it is located in a polychrome building, a bit chic, topped by a dome in Byzantine style. The interior houses a library still in operation today.

We wander aimlessly through the busy little streets full of little shops of Chinese clothes or souvenirs. We pass by the Palais de Justice, the very colourful spice market, up to the Ethnographic Museum which collects relics of various football matches in which the little Martinique team took part... and not French this time!

We set off again towards Guadeloupe!

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