Our first stop after Le Marin was the little village of Ste Anne, still in the same enormous bay towards the south of the island. The long white sand beach there is buzzing on Sunday with large crowds of locals picnicking under the trees. Joined by our good friends on S/Y Scorch, we had a delicious three-course lunch in town at Le Sud, which we would highly recommend to anyone.
A pleasant downwind sail took us to Fort de France, the capital, where we anchored under the imposing fortress of St Louis. The town has a very French feel to it and offers some good shopping and a number of interesting buildings. The most striking is Bibliotheque Schoelcher, built for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris and then shipped to Martinique; it is still in use today. Disappointingly there is a dearth of street-side cafes in the town centre where one can enjoy a coffee or a cold beer and watch the world go by.
We moved on to Trois Islets (confusingly the name of an area and a small village). The anchorage feels very rural with the sound of birds, crickets and some very vocal cockerels. Bourg of Trois Islets is charming and was the home of Princess Josephine up until the age of 16. There is a lovely stuccoed church and a plethora of fish-scale tiled buildings. We walked across the peninsula to see Anse Mitan which was a complete contrast – very touristy and rather naff.
Finding a rental car has been a challenge, there simply aren’t any! Apparently after the strikes of last year, the rental agencies divested themselves of much of their stock. Now, in high season, they don’t have enough cars to go around. We finally managed to find a 2-seater white van to rent and are picking that up tomorrow to explore more of the island.
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