Martinique liegt zwar in der Karibik, ist aber ein Teil von Frankreich. So findet man hier sozusagen: Karibik light 🙂
Man bezahlt mit Euro. Das ist natürlich sehr angenehm und erspart einem das Umrechnen mit dem Faktor 2,8. Das im Kopf zu rechnen ist schon recht anspruchsvoll. Die Preise sind moderat und weder vom Nasenfaktor des Verkäufers noch von der Hautfarbe des Käufers abhängig. Außerdem bekommt man auf der Insel fast alles, was das Herz begehrt 🙂 Und gibt es keine Boatboys, die einem dauernd etwas verkaufen wollen. Somit liefert aber auch niemand mehr direkt ans Boot. Das ist eigentlich etwas schade 🙂
Die Straßen sind in einem guten Zustand, es gibt Verkehrsschilder, Speed ​​limits and fortunately one is driving on the "correct" side of the road. That was enough of a reason, to convince us, rent a car here.
The disadvantage of the French "colony" is however, that many people speak little to no English. Now we had to muddle through with our French rather badly.
In the morning right after breakfast we picked up our rental car. That was a real challenge, because the rental car station in the marine center had moved and everyone, that we asked had never heard of her. On the other hand, orientation on Martinique's streets was child's play. Past the capital Fort-de-France, it went on a small winding road into the mountains and the rainforest. Our first stop was in Batala-Touret, where a scaled-down replica of the famous Parisian Sacre Coeur cathedral can be seen. Well, but we weren't particularly enthusiastic about it, but good. You can find photos in the picture galleries, then you can get your own picture :-). But the view of Fort-de-France was very nice.
But the rainforest, which pulled up the steep mountain slopes to the right and left of the road, was wonderful. Again and again streams crossed the road and low-hanging clouds with rain showers made it clear, that the name says it all.
In the far north we actually wanted to drive up to the island's volcano, but shrouded in dense clouds. Entering 19. Century was the trigger of a disaster, in the former capital St. Pierre completely destroyed and 30.000 People were killed. St. Pierre was at this time the Paris of the Caribbean and the People, who lived at the foot of the volcano, underestimated the danger. At the 4. More 1902 a 7.52 AM was the city of a 150 overrun kph and 2000 ° hot lava avalanche. Even the ships caught fire in the port and the windows melted together into clumps. The residents had no chance, and burnt to ashes in minutes.
Part of the ruins is still very well preserved, such as the old theater or the prison. Here were the helpers, after the volcanic eruption to St. Pierre kamen, the only survivors. The man was in prison and after three days he was badly burned and half starved to be released. It's always amazing, die das Schicksal so spielt 🙂
The city never recovered from the volcanic eruption and is sadly rather dilapidated. Nevertheless we found a nice restaurant, in which we enjoyed a delicious lunch. Then it went back along the coast to Le Marin. The mainsail was due to be delivered at four o'clock, to which the sailmaker Garvin from NORTH SAILS still had to sew the mast slides. While Dietmar took care of the sail, I wanted to use our luxury car to do some extensive grocery shopping. Here in Martinique there is the supermarket chain Carrefour and after that, what we heard, The choice should be wide and the prices (by Caribbean standards) be small.
Am Abend waren wir dann noch mit Ralf und Sylvia von der SY FELUKA verabredet. Die Beiden haben auch an der ARC teilgenommen und bleiben bis Ende der Saison in der Karibik. Schon in Saint Lucia hatten wir am selben Steg gelegen, aber ein Treffen hatte sich nie ergeben. Das würde jetzt aber auch mal Zeit 🙂 und natürlich war es ein lustiger Abend. Wir freuen uns schon auf ein Wiedersehen.