Beaches, coconut palms and trade winds... so many clichés celebrating the Guadeloupe archipelago. Its two main butterfly-shaped islands, Basse-Terre and Grande-Terre, separated by the Rivière Salée, include six others with names as enchanting as Marie-Galante, la Désirade and les Saintes... While Grande-Terre is a landscape of dry plains, Basse-Terre is quite the opposite: rugged, verdant mountains dominated by the still-active Soufrière volcano. In the national park, the forest is a paradise: an exuberance of gum trees, chestnut trees and acomat-boucans on which philodendrons and other lianas grow, not to mention superb tree ferns and countless tufts of elephant ears. An original Eden, the kingdom of mongooses and raccoons, defended at all costs by Laurence Vallot of the Vert Intense agency.
Green tourism is on trend
Passionate about nature, like her partner Éric Barret, they offer a wide range of activities in the heart of the forest: "In principle, we only work with groups split into small, closely supervised units, because safety is our priority. We take them abseiling down waterfalls, kayaking down a river or hiking to La Soufrière, where they can discover all the botanical riches of the island's forest. And when they reach the top, they are surprised by the deafening roar of the volcano. Other times, when they don't have much time, we simply send them to the Jardin d'Eau in Goyave for an afternoon of discovery, fun and sport.
On the coast of Basse-Terre, between sea and forest, there are plantations of bananas, pineapples and, of course, sugar cane, one of the island's ancient resources, grown today to distil agricultural rum. Pascal Marsolle, son of the owners of the Séverin estate, is continuing the work of his ancestors, while diversifying the activities: "We wanted to keep our distillery alive. A small train takes groups on a tour of the ouassous farms, the local crayfish, then takes them two kilometres along the edge of the sugar cane fields before taking them back to the distillery where the whole rum-making process is explained to them. At the end, they are treated to a tasting session and if they want to eat, we have a small Creole restaurant on site".
The estate's garden is gradually being restored, but is still no match for the Deshaies botanical garden, formerly owned by Coluche. Here, groups can discover the tree species of these tropical latitudes - palm trees, cheese trees, breadfruit trees... - and astonishing birds such as lorikeets, small Australian parrots that feed on flower nectar, or the very graphic red flamingos of the Caribbean. The panoramic restaurant overlooking the waterfall can be rented privately, unless you prefer to have lunch by the beach, as at Karacoli in Grande Anse, where Lucienne Salcède, a beautiful and welcoming Creole, serves typical, slightly spicy cuisine in the open air. Another alternative is the Ti Café de la Bonifierie restaurant in Saint Claude, the former Espérance dwelling, where charming young girls explain the secrets of coffee and cocoa. Daniel Cabre, the manager of the restaurant, also runs the Mangofil adventure park next door: "On the estate, groups have several options: they can try their hand at accrobranche (tree climbing), always supervised by professionals, or they can take a quad bike ride through the forest. If they want to take part in more fun-filled days, we organise blindfolded coconut tosses and treasure hunts where the clues relate to their business." All of this is usually accompanied by breathtaking views of the sea. An aquatic playground that's ideal for all kinds of discoveries on jet-ski - mangroves, islets, dolphins - or on short cruises aboard catamarans. Gérard Hayweski, director of Privilège Croisières, knows all about these outings: "For groups, there's no problem, we can charter several catamarans and take them to Petite Terre for a day, for example. There, we disembark them on a white sandy beach lined with coconut palms, then they set off to discover the underwater world, as the islets of Petite Terre are a diver's paradise. After lunch in the shade on the boat, the crew take them for a walk along the paths to observe iguanas, hermit crabs and land crabs, the only inhabitants of these islets apart from the birds. Another popular cruise destination for groups is the small archipelago of Les Saintes, two hours from the Pointe-à-Pitre marina or half an hour from Trois-Rivières, south of Basse-Terre. Its name - Los Santos - comes from Christopher Columbus, who discovered it on All Saints' Day, and the bay of Terre de Haut, with its mini Sugar Loaf of basalt organs, is often ranked as one of the three most beautiful bays in the world.
Cruise ships and American sailing boats have understood this, anchored in the turquoise waters where the brightly coloured local boats, the "saintoises", ply their trade. On the quayside, the doudous offer their specialities, "tourments d'amour", coconut pastries. There are few cars here, so the group will hire mopeds and climb up to Fort Napoléon.
Descendants of Bretons and Normans
Fort Napoléon is a military building completed in 1867 to counter the English on Dominica. Built in the Vauban style, it overlooks the bay and houses the Museum of History and Traditions, where guided tours can be booked. On the ramparts, a walkway has been laid out and you can discover several varieties of cactus where iguanas hide. Once back on the ramparts, visitors can stroll through the narrow streets of the village, lined with small Creole huts, each as colourful and charming as the next, with many shops displaying madras fabrics, shells and exotic paintings. Descendants of the Bretons or Normans have fair complexions and often blue eyes. After shopping, the group re-embark for a picnic on the boat, facing the Sugar Loaf, where the translucent sea promises a gentle swim.
All that remains is to discover the city of Pointe-à- Pitre. The best way to do this is to take a tour of the markets, starting with the one in La Darse, on the waterfront, where the vegetable and fruit sellers are dressed in madras tiles, and continuing with the fish stalls and the covered market with its spices, Creole dolls and craft punches. Then there's the Place de la Victoire, lined with a number of characteristic buildings, including the sub-prefecture, where the winners of the next Route du Rhum will arrive in November. Then there's the Saint-John-Perse museum, a beautiful colonial house recounting the life and work of the poet, and the Schœlcher museum, dedicated to Victor Schœlcher, MP and eminent chairman of the commission to abolish slavery in 1848. A man revered throughout the French West Indies, both in Guadeloupe and in Fort-de-France, Martinique, where the library bearing his name, sent from Paris in pieces, has become a veritable emblem.
Escapes from Martinique
Fort-de-France is a buzzing city, surrounded by a ring road, with heavy, even very heavy traffic. A thorn in the side for some incentives, but not insurmountable according to Patrick Sourdeau, manager of the La Batelière hotel in Schœlcher: "Where we are located, almost in the town centre, we have all the leisure facilities of a resort, a beach and a pontoon. This puts us at the forefront of the Fort-de-France cluster, bearing in mind that the other clusters are Pointe-du-Bout and Sainte-Luce. I'm also keen to develop travel between these centres by sea in taxi-boats, which will avoid all the peaks in road traffic. It's important for La Batelière to reposition itself in the market by welcoming business people as well as tourists. A stroll through this overseas prefecture will give you a better idea of the West Indian way of life.
The old Fort-Royal buzzes with shops, around the metal-framed Saint Louis cathedral. In the Parc de la Savane, the statue of Joséphine de Beauharnais, a native of the island, has still not recovered... her head. Ever since independence fighters guillotined her, blaming her for Napoleon's reintroduction of slavery after the Revolution. So, failing that, the groups will go south to contemplate her bust preserved in the garden of the Musée de la Pagerie, the estate where she lived until the age of sixteen. All that remains of the house where she was born are the stone foundations, and only the old kitchen contains objects and engravings recounting her imperial intimacy. From here, the road takes many twists and turns, flirting with the sea to catch a glimpse of the symbolic rock of Le Diamant and the memorial at Anse Cafard, with its fifteen white statues commemorating the sinking of a slave ship in 1830. Continuing along the south coast, you arrive at the most beautiful beach in Martinique, Grande Anse des Salines, where coconut palms grow on the white sands... A brief moment of dreaming in front of crystal-clear waters.
Champagne and ti-punch
The ocean remains a leisure activity for groups. Many experiments have been tried here. Thierry Blanc, director of the inbound agency Carib Recept, says: "In Martinique, you can do anything. There's no standard model; we adapt to our customers' needs. Of course, there are the catamaran trips to the islets and the yawl regattas, those light, colourful boats. But one of the great experiences is at aperitif time, when a helicopter drops bottles of champagne into the sandy shallows near Le François, known as Joséphine's bathtub. There everyone sips their glass while chatting, water up to their waist... Alternatively, we can organise a bivouac for 130 people in the middle of a forest beside a river, with campfires burning all night and a traditional show combining authenticity and discovery in which everyone takes part... And why not a meeting for 100 people on the beach, in swimming costumes on deckchairs, following the speaker on a barge on a screen? Or an evening at Josephine's house, with ballets, a steel band and, of course, champagne!"
In the absence of champagne, rum is everywhere, mixed with guava juice in a "planteur", or drunk with lime and cane syrup in a "ti-punch". The distilleries dotted around the island give groups an insight into a tradition that goes back more than 300 years. In the south, the distilleries at Trois-Rivières and La Mauny tell the story of the cutting, crushing, fermentation and distillation of sugar cane, which has now been supplanted by banana cultivation. Near Le François, the 18th-century Clément dwelling is well worth a visit. This is where the summit meeting between Mitterrand and Bush Senior took place in March 1991. The house has retained its Compagnie des Indes-style mahogany furniture, and the outbuildings house a collection of stencils used since the 19th century to mark barrels. In the evening, a drink can be served to music as a group dine under a white tent in the floodlit park.
Lunch in a carbet
Other estates have given up sugar cane cultivation and, in order to maintain the buildings, have converted to hotels and restaurants, places where groups can stop for a meal. L'habitation Lagrange is a charming residence with wooden lacework, where you can eat under a "carbet", a large hut; at the Leyritz plantation, you can eat in the various outbuildings, and at l'habitation Céron, on the banks of a river. Its owner, Louis Marraux Desgrottes, is very attached to traditions: "I wanted to preserve a real atmosphere in this property that belonged to my grandfather. And not to become a Disneyland. Groups can learn here what a sugar refinery and distillery were like, and at the same time discover a garden with superb trees, like this 250-year-old zambana. In fact, the mango trees planted around the house are the same age. From there, on horseback or quad bike, they set off to the waterfall in the middle of the forest, where they can take a dip. Along the way, they are sure to come across a few black pigs, true descendants of those abandoned by the Spaniards when Christopher Columbus first passed through."
From there, it's back down to Saint-Pierre, a town that was devastated by a fiery cloud that erupted from Mount Pelée on 8 May 1902, taking its 30,000 inhabitants by surprise and leaving behind only the ruins of the theatre, the dungeons and the lycée. As a reminder, the Earth Sciences Discovery Centre on the heights of the city explains volcanoes, earthquakes and cyclones to groups. Beneath the ominous mountain, the Depaz distillery, set amidst the sugarcane fields, has defied the volcano's whims since 1917, thanks to tenacious owners, an exceptional climate and an abundance of spring water. It's here that delicious old or golden rums are made, as smooth as the caress of the trade winds.
