The French Caribbean

Over the Easter holidays I was lucky enough to take a Caribbean Cruise with my family to celebrate a big birthday this year! You may already know that I love the Caribbean and have been lucky enough to visit many times both on work trips and on family holidays. However, two of the islands on the cruise were ones I haven’t visited before and I was very much looking forward to seeing them.

They are both French islands. The first one being Guadeloupe, where the popular, light hearted, murder mystery BBC drama, Death in Paradise, is filmed. I am a very big ‘Death in Paradise’ fan and have seen all 56 episodes since it first started in 2011, so I was very excited to finally visit the island where it all happens.

It didn’t disappoint! Guadeloupe is a beautiful group of islands, shaped like a butterfly, with the main island being a natural masterpiece with mangrove forests and coral reefs. It is very undiscovered, as yet unaffected by major tourism. Every inch of the island’s tropical forest is covered with wildlife and the oceans burst with the colour of schools of bright fish.
For the ‘Death in Paradise’ fans amongst you, we did get to see Honore Police Station, we had a beer in Catherines Bar and even saw them building the Inspectors shack on the beach ready for them filming the new series in 3 weeks time! The beach here is absolutely stunning!

The second French Island which we visited was Martinique. The town here, Fort de France, was very pretty with wonderful colonial French architecture. We wandered around the streets looking at the lovely buildings and enjoyed a drink at one of the pavement café bars. You could just imagine you were on the streets of Paris, with everybody speaking French and the currency being the Euro. There is even a small version of the Sacre Coeur on the island and there is also a Galeries Lafayette in Fort-De-France.

We should also have been visiting the lovely nature island of Dominica, but after the two hurricanes last year, the island hasn’t yet fully recovered and wasn’t taking cruise ships. I guess this is a great reason to go back when it is fully open for business and inspect what this beautiful island has to offer.

For more information on getting to, and the options for staying on one or all of the islands in The French Caribbean, call Lisa at Caribbean & Exotic Boutique on 01706 507175