LA BELLE EPOQUE
97 route de Didier, Fort-de-France (00 596 596 644 119). Fine French dining in an historic villa in the suburb of Didier, above Fort-de-France. Also has an extensive wine list.
LA MAISON DE L’ILET OSCAR
Off Le Francois (00 596 596 658 230). Dinner by appointment only. You have to be fetched by fishing boat to get to this bistro on a Robinson Crusoe island, where tables are laid out at the water’s edge under palapa-covered pavilions. Before lunch, you will probably be taken to La Baignoire de Josephine, a shallow pool where, according to legend, Napoleon’s main squeeze would swim.
LA PLANTATION
Pays Mele, Lamentin (00 596 596 501 608). Hard to find, down a steep lane near the busy town of Lamentin, but worth the effort. Set in a lush garden, with plumaged cockerels strutting about, this handsome Creole house with cool marble interior also has a veranda where you can eat outdoors. When Rene Russo was filming The Thomas Crown Affair, she had the lobster ravioli. It’s good.
LE FROMAGER
Fond St-Denis (00 596 596 781 9070). Here, the view over the rooftops of St-Pierre to the sea counts as much as the food – though the chef’s menu is a very good deal.
Things to do in Martinique
BEACHES
All of Martinique’s beaches are public, but hotels charge non-guests to use changing facilities. The coral-sand beaches are around Pointe du Bout, but all the hotels are there too, so they tend to be crowded. Try the wilder beaches near Ste-Anne, such as Anse-Trabaud, Les Salines or Baie des Anglais.
HIGHLIGHTS
The Caravelle Peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean is a Nature Reserve with places for trekking, swimming and sailing, and at its eastern tip is Dubuc Castle, once home to the Dubuc de Rivery family, who owned the peninsula in the 18th-century.
It is said that the Empress Joséphine swam in the shallow, white-sand basins, known as fonds blancs, at the Ilets de l’Imperatrice. Today, boats from Le François will take you out to enjoy the uniquely Martinican custom of standing up to your waist in water, sipping ti punch, eating accras and smoking.
Musée de la Pagerie Trois-Ilets (00 596 683 834) is a must for Josephine-aholics. This museum in the village of Trois-Islets has family portraits, a love letter written to Josephine in 1796 by Napoleon, and various antique furnishings, including the bed she slept in as a child. Open Tue-Sun 9am-5.30pm.
Martinique was also a brief station in Paul Gauguin’s wanderings, but a decisive moment in the evolution of his art. The small Musée Gauguin (00 596 782 266) at Anse-Turin is the only place you can see all his Martinique work, albeit in reproduction, under one roof. Open daily, 9am-5.30pm.
The rise and fall of St-Pierre is also a remarkable story. The island’s oldest city, it has a population of about 6,500. At the turn of the 20th-century, it was known as the Paris of the West Indies, but on 8 May 1902, Martinique’s volcano, Mont Pelée, erupted and St-Pierre was vaporised, with 30,000 people killed in two minutes. One man survived: a prisoner called Antoine Ciparis, saved by the thick walls of his underground cell. He was later pardoned and became a sideshow attraction at the Barnum & Bailey Circus in the US. The Musée Vulcanologique in St-Pierre (00 596 781 516; open daily, 9am-5pm) will tell you all about the science of volcanoes; the hike up to Mont Pelée takes you to a real one.
How to get to Martinique
AIRPORT
Lamentin International Airport.
AIRLINES FROM THE UK
Air France (0845 084 5111; www.airfrance.com) flies via Paris and Virgin Atlantic (01293 747747; www.virgin-atlantic.com) via Barbados. NB Prices rise considerably in peak seasons (mid-July to September and during December).
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Publish date : 2009-11-11 03:00:00
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