Fort-de-France – Ville Capitale

Once on French territory, the boat’s St Lucian maritime flag had been changed with France’s flag. As soon as the boat got anchored, we disembarked. We passed through the duty free area and after we had a taste from their traditional Rum, we started exploring Martinique’s capital, Fort-De-France, which is one of the biggest cities in the Caribbean and it is also a very busy commercial Centre. The city is also known by the name of Fort Royal [in Creole language], which used to be the capital’s first name. With its interesting combined architecture styles, it’s hard to lose interest.

Such a beautiful building is the Schoelcher Library (Bibliothèque Schoelcher).

With its colourful walls and a Byzantine dome, this library has been built in Paris, and then shipped in pieces to be reassembled in Fort-de-France.

For no charge at all, tourists can visit this library. You can also take a look at the temporary exhibitions that are sometimes being held inside the building.

Next, we entered a neo-Byzantine style building: St. Louis Cathedral. Once again, free of charge, it is a good place to take a breath and just hide from the sun for a few minutes. The indoors of the building are something worth checking out as well.

Le Grand Marché or the Big Market, another very important attraction of Fort-de-France. Fruits, spices and home-made rum are on every person’s shopping list, be it locals or tourists.

The vendors are really proud of their merchandise and they will go out of their way to try and sell it. Some are dressed up to attract tourists and they will pose for you, but think about giving something in return, if you are not buying from them. They sometimes expect that, as a sign of appreciation for their willingness to pose.

The Statue of Empress Josephine (First French Empress) depicts Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1st wife, who was born in Martinique. The statue hasn’t always been headless, but in 1991 the French colonists beheaded it, and later they splattered it with red paint, to look like blood. The reason why she is so disliked is because it is believed that the empress was the one who convinced Napoleon to reinstate slavery in all French colonies.