Les Savanes des Escalves and Anse d'Arlet

 On our third Martinican morning, we visited a beautiful, moving cultural and historic site: Les Savanes des Escalves. This museum is the passion project of one man, Gilbert Larose, who built this place and still operates it.

The history of Martinique is fraught with violent colonization, slavery, and a long fight for emancipation. This open-air museum tells that story, through a very thorough introductory film, traditional buildings, wood carved statues, gardens, and both French and English signage.

Just on the surface level, the gardens are beyond beautiful. I kept collecting flower photos here and I was excited to recognize a cacao tree.

But there is a lot more to this place. There was a traditional Carib village.

The pre-Colombian era of the Caribbean was dominated first by the Arawak, and then the Caribs. It was once believed the Arawak were very peaceful and the Caribs were the aggressors that eradicated them, but in recent years there has been some discussion of whether that is the case or if it was the justification used by Europeans to massacre the Caribs.

The colonizers first tried bringing in indentures from Europe to work the land, promising them their own land and freedom if they produced sugarcane or other cash crops for 5 years. Most didn't survive even that long.

Since that particular form of slavery wasn't proving to be all that lucrative, the brought in African people to enslave and work. I'll spare you the grisly details of what day to day life was like, the kinds of punishments inflicted, but this museum did not. 

There were huts that served as examples of what the living conditions were like for enslaved people. They were allowed nothing in their huts but some straw to sleep on. The huts here were populated with wood carvings, depictions of the people who might live in them.

And then there was the long fight for emancipation. Maybe folks aren't aware of this, but runaways, uprisings, and other forms of resistance happened constantly. One of the reasons punishments were so harsh was because the colonizers knew they were outnumbered and would be powerless to stop, or even survive, a unified uprising.

There are celebrated abolitionists like Victor Schoelcher, who get a lot of credit for the end of slavery in the French territories. There are also the likes of Empress Josephine, born in Martinique, who is--fairly or not--blamed for slavery being reinstated after a short occupation by the British had all but ended it. But I think the most impressive person we learned about during our visit was this man: Romain.

Drums were a vital way for slaves to communicate with each other, organize, and of course play music, but the first two were the reasons given for the banning of playing drums by the ruling class. Romain defied this new restriction and played anyway. He was put in prison.

His arrest caused such an uproar, there was a massive uprising and revolt in St. Pierre. The people who had been enslaved literally took over the city and threatened to burn it all to the ground if they weren't given their freedom. Eventually, fearing for his life, the governor of Martinique relented. 

On May 22, 1848 slavery was abolished in Martinique. The official decision from the French government to end slavery was signed and delivered two months later, but not till after the enslaved had already emancipated themselves.

Life did not magically get easy, but people were able to start building lives for themselves. Growing gardens--the Kreol garden is a cherished tradition in Martinique--and the huts in the Kreol village at Les Savanes des Escalves were a definite improvement over slave quarters: plaster on the walls, belongings, beds, furniture...home.

This museum is so effective at tell this story, but of course the only thing my children will remember: it was hot. There were cute cats (and Laszlo took pictures of all of them). We bought some juice from the juice bar and it was freaking delicious. There wasn't any ice cream.

It's a little weird to say you enjoyed yourself at a museum depicting the worst actions of human kind, but it was absolutely incredible. It was, however, also a lot of hills and heat and walking. We had lunch back at our hotel and then let the grandparents put up their feet and have a little break while Lee and I took the boys to the beach at Anse d'Arlet.

Anse d'Arlet is a beautiful little town with a big, beautiful beach, snorkeling, and ample parking! Glory hallelujah! I chose the beaches we visited very carefully; snorkeling and the possibility of seeing sea turtles were among my top criteria.

Lee and I took turns snorkeling and playing on the beach with the kids. We found that right in the shallows by the rocks there were quite a few fish, so Paul and Laszlo could get a little of the fun of snorkeling without going out deeper than they could stand.

But the best and most beautiful of the reef were out a bit farther. This reef in particular was like a sea garden.

We snorkeled all around the reef, then I noticed a group of people snorkeling in the middle of the inlet, not by the rocks where all the fish were. I had to go check out what they were looking at, just in case it was awesome.

And it was awesome. A TURTLE! I wasn't sure I'd get to see one of this trip, but there is that checked off my little bucket list.

The sandcastles the kids built and destroyed literally became the city of crabs. Arthur and I watched six little crabs popping and out of holes all over the remnants of their builds.

I wouldn't let everyone leave without getting some photos of the beautiful church of Anse d'Arlet. It's the kind of place that would probably blow up on instagram, and it was almost golden hour when we left.

Unfortunately, none of us are instagram models. We can't even stop squinting or, in some cases, look at the freaking camera for a millisecond.

But Laszlo, my budding photographer, got this photo of me that I genuinely love.

It was a gorgeous end to our day. Back at the hotel we cooked up some dinner, ate some ice cream, and Grandpa lost at cards repeatedly.