Why Americans Are Suddenly Flocking to This Gorgeous Caribbean Island
It’s Steeped in History.
My growing realization that I had only scratched the surface of Martinique was confirmed when I visited the sites related to the island’s celebrity daughter, Josephine Bonaparte. The remains of her birthplace, Domaine de la Pagerie (Rte. 38, Les Trois-Îlets; 596-596-68-38-34), are lovingly preserved, with gardens that display the dahlias, hibiscus, and camellias she introduced to Europe as empress. Boat tours from Le François, on the eastern coast, include visits to La Baignoire de Joséphine — “Josephine’s Bathtub” — a shallow sandbar in the middle of the bay near where, legend claims, she holidayed as a child. Catamarans from Les Ballades du Delphis weigh anchor so passengers can eat Creole snacks and sip cocktails in the waist-high water. But the love affair is complex. The island’s most prominent statue of the empress, in the main square of Fort-de-France, has had its head chopped off. The few Martinicans who believe the island should be independent see Josephine as a symbol of French oppression. It was she who convinced Napoleon to reinstate slavery on the island in 1802, locals believe, after it had been abolished following the French Revolution. In 1991, independence activists “guillotined” the statue. “The government has had another head carved for her, but they don’t want to put it back on,” an old gent in the park told me with a chuckle. “If they do, those coquins [rascals] have promised to chop it off again!” Obviously, I still had more hidden depths to explore.
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