Fort de France and Food

Our last day to spend in Martinique and we finally got around to visiting the de facto capital of the island! We got up bright and early to try to get downtown for a 9 AM walking and food tour. We left at 8 AM and were still late. I literally jumped out of the car at a stoplight to make sure our guide knew we weren't no-showing.

A rocky start, but we got to see a few of the sights and learn some new things along the way.

The historic Fort St. Louis is still an active naval base for the French. We didn't go in the fort, but admired from the nearby park.

Some of the pavement in the park was made of this red ceramic type stuff, which I loved and Arthur photographed for me. Right across from the park you'll find...
 

The beautiful and historic Bibliotheque Schoelcher!

The building was built in France for the World's Fair or some such nonsense, then it was disassembled and rebuilt here in Martinique. They wanted a metal structure that would survive hurricanes and not susceptible to fires. Having lost the previous library to a fire, this was a top priority.

The library is named for noted abolitionist Victor Schoelcher. He donated his large private collection of books and music to the original public library so that former slaves could access them and get an education.

Much of his collection was lost in the fire that claimed that wooden structure, but the surviving pieces are here in this library.

It's an incredibly beautiful art nouveau building, and it's still being used for community events, educational displays, and of course, books!

It's not air-conditioned, but there are these brilliant vents in the floor that circulate cooler air from below the building to help keep it cool.

It was hot, it was sunny, but we soldiered on!

The beautiful Hotel de Ville! It's not a hotel anymore, but a theater and museum dedicated to Aimé Cesaire, a much loved poet, playwright, and political thinker in Martinique. He died in 2008, but has a legacy of advocating for the people of this island and their cultural identity that won't quickly be forgotten.

And here is the local seat of the French government. From what our tour guides said, they find the governance of the French to be a bit neglectful. It doesn't sound like they get much in the way of representation and the issues of affordability and infrastructure are big issues for the average Martinican.

The kids were now asking me in earnest where the food on this food tour was. Well our first food stop was pretty interesting! We got to try some fresh jus de cannes.

Here's how it's made: squeeze the juice out of a stalk of sugarcane. Put it in a cup with an ice cube and a lime wedge. Serve. Here's the press that they use to juice the sugarcane:

I give jus de cannes a 10/10. Delicious and refreshing. One Christmas traditional food in Martinique we got to try was a little meat filled pastry, a little mean pie that fits in the palm of your hand. I might make this a Christmas tradition at our house now, they were excellent!

We sat down on a beautiful street in the beautiful shade to sample a Kreol dish of fish, plantains, and onions. 

I hope you didn't forget that I have been collecting flowers from Martinique, here is the last of my collection:

The boys found some beautiful blossoms on the ground that had fallen from a tree, and they kept giving them to me, so I had to put them in my hair!

After all that food, we weren't the least bit hungry, so we got dessert! A local bakery that has been in the same family for 6 generations provided some delicious guava, banana, and passion fruit filled cakes.

And, finally, the cathedral. We arrived just before a service, so I didn't stay inside very long or take many pictures so as not to disrupt the people actually attending church, but it had some beautiful stained glass.

Hot, tired, and ready for a rest, we walked back to the car, past the McDonald's, and returned to our hotel.

Our hotel room got a lot of visitors. Not the rude French tourists, or the kind Canadian tourists, but cute little critters.

The kitchen and table were on the patio. You could lower these metal shades for privacy and to keep bugs out, but when we were out there eating or playing cards, we would of course have them open for air circulation and general pleasantness.

We had a couple little birds, though, that would swoop in and snatch up crumbs the minute they thought we weren't looking. We learned very quickly to make sure all food was safely stored in the fridge or cupboards if we didn't want to share.

For our final evening, we walking over to the beach right by our hotel for one last splash in the ocean and a look at the beautiful views of Fort de France across the bay.

We had a final celebratory dinner of sushi and ice cream and prepared to return to a land where I'd presumably not need quite so much google translate.

And the next morning we packed up, cleaned up, and headed to the airport! Our flights home necessitated an overnight stay in Miami, so we didn't have to return to the cold right away. Salt Lake City did welcome us home with snow as our plane landed, I assume to make sure we didn't have time to adapt to the drastically different weather.