Our first taste of tropical France!
We finally left St Lucia in early January and set sail for Martinique. The passage was short (less than 20 miles) but it felt good to be out at sea again. Our first port was Anse de Arlet, a stunning bay with a small beach and rainforest mountains literally dribbling down in to the sea. With not much going on in the small town, we enjoyed a couple of chilled days swimming and snorkling off the boat. We even came across another Aussie – Lisa – who had married a local guy (Jean-Luc) and lived on their 40 ft cat. Lisa introduced us to the local rum cocktail (Ti Punch) which I now drink all the time. Its basically a shot of rum made smooth with a little sugar and lime. 
Over the next week, we cruised up the coast, passing many more beautiful bays, each wth a small beach and town. These little places were very idllyic … but so quiet they seemed unreal. We decided to check out Fort de France – the main city in Martinique – and get a better feel for non touristic side of life. The place was a little busier (it had a McDonalds) but still very chilled, especially in the afternoons and evenings. One of the highlights was the local market. Co-op markets are still a big part of life here, with lots of nice fresh produce and small stall restaurants. We sat down at one of the stalls to try the local creole food, which seems to centre around stewed meat, rice and little fried batter balls called Accras. The balls contain either meat or fish paste and taste a bit like tempura balls. Yummy but not too healthy :0 
Close to Fort de France we stopped at a town called Tres Islets …. which as the name would suggest had 3 bays 🙂 We went there as both locals and our guide books suggested it was a good place for a nice meal out. What took us a while to realise in Martinique is that the main meal out is lunch, and by dinner time most restaurants are closed. We tramped around this town past all the closed restaurants for over an hour and had given up when we came across a British sailing couple who suggested a little shack that did nice local food and most important – was still open. By the time we arrived (a late 8pm by Martinique standards) we were the only customers but the lady was nice enough to prepare a local platter. While it contained the usual accras, stewed meat and rice it also had these little blood suausages which are apparently a local treat. Sabina was not a fan … but I loved them. 
Our final port of call in Martinique was Saint Pierre, which at one time was considered the Paris of the Caribbean. The place has a bit of an explosive history. In 1902 the town was destroyed by the eruption of Mt Pelee, killing all but 2 of the 30,000 inhabitants. While the town has now been rebuilt, you can still see some of the ruins and there is a small museum that explains what happened. The story is quite sad. Apparently Mt Pelee had been grumbling for some time, even destroying a couple of mountain vuillages, and many believed it was going to erupt. However the local governor was under a bit pressure from local plantation owners and traders to keep people working. To put his money where his mouth is he even travelled from Fort de France to Saint Pierre to prove its safety. Unfortunately at 8am on May 8 Mt Pelee burst open, and a avalanche of ash and sulphur litterally blew away the town and its inhabitants – including the governor. The only 2 survivors were in the town jail where the thick stone walls of the cells somehow protected them while melting the grates so they could escape to safety. 
The one positive of the volcano is that the surrounding volcanic soil and mineral rich mountain streams makes for an excellent rum. Unlike the rough rum we seem to drink back home, the local rum here is quite soft and quite drinkable straight. We toured one of the distilleries and had plans to stock up before we left. Unfortunately we came up against our only instance of ‘french charm’ while tasting with the barman seemily not liking non french speakers. Anyway, his loss – we just went to a local shop in town and stocked up there.
Our final night in Martinique had a french flair. Fearing that this was going to be our last taste of sophisticated food and wine, we went to a little french bistro called La Tamaya which is owned by some fellow sailors. Sabina tried some local fresh crayfish from the rainforest streams. While visually amazing, they proved to be quite a bugger to de-shell and eat. I tucked in to my beef burgundy and enjoyed our nice French wine.
The next day we grabbed some fresh baguettes for lunch and set passage for Dominica.
distillery