New York – Martinique 2016, part 9 (Martinique)
Since I walked a little around the area of the Anse Caffard Memorial, I hitch-hiked again and transferred to the centre of town Le Diamant on the shore of the cove called Grande Anse du Diamant.
In the centre, where I got out of the car, I first came across St. Thomas Church. The first church was built here at the end of the 17th century, but it was completely destroyed in the 1766 hurricane, so the next one, including a bell-tower, was built in 1778. Well, that one was demolished as well by a hurricane in 1817 and then a new church in the Baroque style was built and consecrated in 1829. Over time the building was improved and expanded, and in the second half of the 20th century it was also declared a historical monument.
Right on the spot from which I took the photo of the church I just turned around and on the other side there was the Grand Cove of the Diamond, i.e., Grande Anse du Diamant.
Lit by the Sun, the water in this cove had an attractive colour, but there was a very strong wind and the waves were relatively big, plus, there was nobody in the water, so I did not even think of going for a swim. Instead, I just walked a little over the large boat dock that exists here.
There I even came across some concrete structure through which there was an interesting view at the Diamond Rock (Rocher du Diamant).
The next few photos simply show the shore of Grande Anse du Diamant.
From the boat dock I went back to the shore and the main street, so I walked around the small town a little.
This walk also took me to the local cemetery. Not because I wanted to chase the graves of those illegal slave traders, but simply because the cemetery is in the middle of the town. On the other hand, cemeteries can be interesting places simply because different traditions and cultures can significantly vary from one place to the next and from one country to the next.
While I was walking like this, I also had a concrete “task” to accomplish. I needed to find a scotch tape. Namely, while I was occasionally changing the batteries in my photo-camera during this journey, a small plastic hook on the lid of the battery compartment first became loose and then it broke off completely, so the lid could not close well and then the contact of the batteries was poor, which actually meant that my camera could not operate. This is never a good thing, especially when you are already travelling and in the middle of sightseeing. In order to “repair” my camera on the spot and make it work again, I came up with the idea to use a scotch tape and wrap it firmly around the camera over the lid which I would consequently fasten, the battery contact would be good and according to my concept everything should be fine until the next change of the batteries.
But, where to find a scotch tape in a small coastal town? In a stationary shop, I said to myself. But, how do I say it in French? Hmm??? Then I entered a shop and started to ask where to find a shop that sells paper and pens (in a few more words and using my arms). That much I knew. So, I was told and I started looking for this shop, but I could not find it (and there were only a dozen shops of all sorts of things in the street). So I entered a shop with different paraphernalia for the beach and with souvenirs, but when I got to the cashier to ask a woman who worked there I saw that she had a tape dispenser on her counter, including a scotch tape, so I started to point at what I was interested in and what I needed, eventually asking her where I could buy this. That woman was extremely kind and so she went to the office next to the counter and simply brought me a brand new small scotch tape. I asked her how much it cost and she said it was all right. Still, I insisted and eventually paid for the tape, so in the end we could both be content. Very satisfied because I succeeded in accomplishing my task, I headed for the exit, but then I remembered, turned back and asked the woman what the French word for what I was holding in my hand was. And she said: “Le scotch.” I thanked her and then I died laughing outside the shop. As it turned out, I knew the French word for the thing the whole time. By the way, the thing with the English expression “scotch tape” constitutes an interesting phenomenon from the 20th century which is the dream of all big companies and that is that the name of their brand becomes the common noun which is used not only for their own product, but is applied to the same products made by competitor companies. (Scotch tape is the brand name for an adhesive transparent tape manufactured by company 3M whose engineer invented the product back in 1930, but this brand name is also used for adhesive transparent tapes made by any manufacturer.)
So, my problem with the lid on the photo-camera was solved and when a few days later I returned to New York, I laughed a lot with my friend Velislav when I gave him the account of this situation. We concluded that it sufficed to put a “le” in front of an English word and there was the French name for the given thing.
After solving the problem with my photo-camera, I became aware that I was hungry, so I headed for a restaurant on the shore. Still, first I went to the beach in order to take a few photos. Although the air temperature was pleasant, the wind was rather strong, which by itself was not too bad, but while I was on the beach I was constantly covered by fine sand, so I stayed there very briefly and then I finally went to eat something.
Again I ordered for my starter those favourites of mine – Caribbean fish fritters (Accras de Morue), as well as some shrimps for the main course. While I was waiting for the food, I also ordered freshly squeezed fruit juice, but this one was maximally diluted and therefore not very good.
After the nice lunch (not counting the juice), I decided to walk on the beach for a short while and I even saw some people venturing into the water, but it was only in the shallows where the waves were breaking. Still, I did not find this attractive enough, so I kept to my photo-taking.
Somewhere in the distance, towards the middle of the Caribbean Sea I could see big dark clouds and rain that poured down from them, but here on Martinique it was dry on this day. After the walk along the Grande Anse du Diamant’s beach, I started to hitch-hike in order to get back to village Ducos. This time I had to hitch-hike a few times in order to cover the distance of less than 20 km in stages. Still, I did not mind this. It was still day and I could watch different parts of Martinique while standing in one place, rather than just driving past them. There was nothing spectacular, but it was certainly static.
And so I transferred to the point on the main road where there is a turning to Ducos in which I was staying and there I decided to simply walk over to the flat in which I had rented a room. There were almost 2 km from the main road to the building in which I was staying, it was still day and this was quite a nice and pleasant walk.
After the initial “shock” when I saw my rented room, by now I was quite used to it and had absolutely no problems with my accommodation. What was important was that I had a place to sleep, which did not cost me a lot. The only thing that did not improve till the very end was the view from my room, since the windows had louvers and therefore the angle of my view was limited. For this reason I went to the other side of the flat and through an open French window I took a photo of the sky that was wonderfully lit by the setting Sun.
The next day I planned to go to the capital of Martinique – Fort-de-France. Still, to start with, when I woke up I felt a bit out-of-sorts, as if feeling a very distant suggestion of a cold. I even actually felt a little cold, so I wrapped my large shawl around my body and I also took an aspirin. I remembered that the evening before I had stopped at a supermarket and their air-conditioning worked on an extreme, so there was this unnaturally big difference between the outside temperature and the temperature inside. I never like this and I never understand why people do this, but who am I to know. Although I felt quite short of breath as I was going up towards a shared taxi stop, called taxico in Martinique, I soon forgot about my morning weakness, which means that it all ended well and that I remained healthy after all. I was not madly full of stamina, but I was alright.
My mood was probably improved by the fact that a taxico came by literally a minute or two after I had arrived at the stop and practically without any proper waiting I headed directly to Fort-de-France, which was great.
The taxico took me to its last stop and that was in the broad area that resembled more a parking lot, although formally there was also the coach terminal of Fort-de-France, as well as terminals for the local boats.
Right in the vicinity of the port, on the way towards a nearby promontory on which there is a fortress Fort Saint Louis, whose first structures date back to the 17th century, there is a city beach La Française. It even seemed not to be the worst of all those I had already seen. Parallel to the beach there is a small park, which then extends into La Savane Park.
Although I was walking in the direction of the fortress, I actually had no intention to do any serious sightseeing visits here. The idea was to walk around the city a little and take photos, as well as buy some small things. So, at some point I just turned back and walking through La Savane Park headed for a very beautiful building and that was Schoelcher Library.
It is interesting that this building of very intricate appearance was actually constructed in France for the 1889 Paris Exhibit. Then it was dismantled, transported to Martinique and then reassembled again here. It was opened in 1893 and to start with they put in some 10,000 books donated in 1883 by Victor Schoelcher, a French politician and abolitionist after whom the library was named. Of course, nowadays the library has a much more significant number of books.
Then I continued walking along the outskirts of the old centre of the city and there right close to the library I also saw the building of the Prefecture of Martinique.
A little farther, there is the former Town Hall of Fort de France which nowadays houses Theatre Aimé Césaire. The theatre was named after Aimé Césaire (1913 – 2008), a poet, writer and politician from Martinique who was also a great fighter for the human rights. The international airport of Martinique has also been named after him. I’m not going to say anything about the building of the present-day theatre, because as it turned out I did not make a good photograph of this edifice from the 19th century.
The main reason why at this point I did not take a better photograph of the edifice lies in the fact that I had certain problems with my photo-equipment while on Martinique. After the problem with the lid of the battery compartment, it turned out I also didn’t have enough memory cards. I simply left all of my backup cards back in New York. I thought that one big card could be enough – what a beginner’s mistake! For this reason I went and bought a new memory card, and then I continued with my walk around the city, but not before I returned briefly to the theatre.
Then I continued with my walk around the city’s pedestrian zone.
There I came across some elderly tourists who were also walking around the centre and I thought they probably came from a cruiser. Again I thought about these enormous ships that bring passengers to a faraway and exotic island where these actually see only the urban centre of a town, close to the port.
Because, during the previous few days I had already had an opportunity to see quite a lot of Martinique and to witness the diversity that exists on the island, so I could not help being puzzled by these people who go on these cruises in order to supposedly visit different islands. And so, the big ship docks at the port of Fort-de-France and these people get off the ship in order to go for a visit of a few hours, thus practically seeing only the city and nothing else. And the city itself is actually the least interesting. There are certainly numerous pools on these ships and these tourists are probably not that interested in visiting different beaches, but still... To be in the city just for a few hours and thinking you have visited Martinique – well that seems like a total miss.
Then I reached a covered market where I first thought I would see only fruits and vegetables, which I love to see anyway, but in addition to these, there were also all sorts of small souvenirs for tourists.
Also, some vendors had dresses made of fabric with specific pattern and colours that are very popular here – red, green, blue and yellow. There I bought a few items including a hair band and a small scarf made of that material and these can be seen being used in one of my photos from the pilgrimage in Spain in 2018 (https://www.svudapodji.com/en/spain-8/).
After this I continued walking around the centre of Fort-de-France a little more. I wanted to go and visit the cathedral, but at the time of my visit it was completely covered in scaffolding since it was being renovated and it was not possible to go in.
So here I finally finished with my brief visit to the capital of Martinique, Fort-de-France, and I did that by closing the circle where I actually started with my walk and that was the terminal for local boats that serve as public transportation. There I bought a ticket to go by one of these boats to yet another cove – L’Anse à l’Âne.