Day Thirteen: Martinique

Firstly, apologies for the delay in posting, I blame work, Wimbledon and a dodgy buffet, but more of that later!




Our last but one stop was on the lovely island of Martinique. Now this island has been predominantly owned by the French for centuries, barring the odd scuffle with the spanish and dutch, and to be slightly hypocritical, the French have ruined the place!

Again, we were on the 'Best of' tour of the island, with a lunch at a plantation house, so it was pretty much an all-dayer, so after another big breakfast (god, how I miss those!), we wandered down to the dock and got on our minibus for our day's adventures.



Now, the first thing you notice about the island is how un-caribbean it is. I think the french have ripped out pretty much everything that you think a Caribbean island should have, so out go lovely little shanty towns and villages, and in come large, grey, monotonous office buildings and apartment blocks. Out go farming and other manual labour jobs, and in come large foreign companies to convert most of the islands green land into farming land for one produce only, bananas. Now, we saw alot of banana plantations on the islands, but Martinique was the only island that covered most of the island in plantations!




I know this seems hypocritical of me, a Brit, to have a go at the French for taking over a Caribbean island and making it their own, but at least when we did it as part of the British empire (which, by the way, you'd think we still had judging by most of the islands, where we were greeted like we were royalty!), we educated the people there, gave them work. The french, on the other hand, have taken a perfectly nice island and bulldozed its culture, rather than embraced it like the brits did.



The only photographs we wanted to take were of the rugged coastline, which I have to say was stunning:







....one of the banana plantations, which has a line running through it to keep the birds away, but makes it look like predator is about to shoot you:






...and another arty picture from my aunt (Arty Aunt!):









..which is a bit good, you have to say!


We also visitied a Rum distillery, which served rum that knocked your head off. It had a big kick of aniseed taste in it, so I declined the offer to get drunk on that occasion!


Our last destination was Saint Pierre, which was devastated by a volcanic eruption of Mont Pelee back in 1902. There is an amazing museum there dedicated to the eruption, featuring all the artefacts that were salvaged. Now, having been to Pompeii before, its a chilling sight to see the shapes of people who have been killed by the ash in the dust, but because this was so recent, there are books, childs toys, wine bottles full of wine, and the old clock bell that was cracked when the church was destroyed. Its one of the most eerie places I've ever been, but it was just fascinating to see up close the devastation that was caused not too long ago.


That pretty much finished us off. We all trudged wearily and depressingly back to the glorious comfort of the ship, and hoped that tomorrow would be a better day, as it was our official last day before heading back to Barbados to get the plane home.


Bug 1 Beagle 0

This past week or so has been a hectic one at work, and I've not had alot of time to myself when I've got home, as Wimbledon has been just so damn exciting, except for the womens matches. My god how much did we not want to see the Williams sisters in the final, although at least it was the good tennis player's turn to win it this time in a drab affair!



Great to see such a good showing from the Brits this time round, and especially Laura Robson, who won the girls tournament at the age of just 14. Lets hope and pray the LTA throw some serious money at her, because she looks close to the finished article already!





Anyway the highlight of the past couple of weeks has been on Saturday, when me and mom went to our friends' wedding reception at Tidbury Green Golf club. She had gone to Antigua for her wedding and the wedding video was amazing, just to see all the shots of the island that we didn't have time for!





There was a lovely buffet as well, which was gorgeous........right up until the moment when I thought I might die!




Ok that may be a slight exaggeration but I must have picked up a bug from some food on the buffet and spent a rather uncomfortable hour and a half afterwards! This, however, did not stop me from bopping the night away, once the grey colour had left my face! All in all it was a great night, and it was good to see people we hadn't seen in ages as well, so all is good!





I shall leave you with the words to the most famous of famous french-speaking hounds. I have been singing this for the last week, although I do tend to mix it in with the Family Ness theme song, so next time I may give you the words to that!





Click here for the song, and don't forget to really go for it in the chorus, and a one, two, a-one two three and....





One for all and all for one


Muskehounds are always ready


One for all and all for one


Helping everybody


One for all and all for one


It's a pretty story


Sharing everything with fun


That's the way to be.



One for all and all for one


Muskehounds are always steady


One for all and all for one


Helping everybody


One for all and all for one


Can sound pretty corny


If you got a problem chum


Think how it could be!



La-la-la la-la-la


They cross their hearts and pray


La-la-la la-la-la


They cross their swords night and day


La-la-la la-la-la


They drink their beer and swear they're faithful to their King.
La-la-la la-la-la


No matter what you say


La-la-la la-la-la


They're never far away


La-la-la la-la-la


They're always ready to fight - or to sing.



One for all and all for one


Muskehounds are always ready.


One for all and all for one


Helping everybody


One for all and all for one


It's a pretty story


Sharing everything with fun


That's the way to be.



One for all and all for one


Muskehounds are always steady


One for all and all for one


Helping everybody


One for all and all for one


Can sound pretty corny


If you got a problem chum


Think how it could be!



La-la-la la-la-la


They like to make jokes and tricks


La-la-la la-la-la


They fight with swords or with sticks


La-la-la la-la-la


They have a beer and swear they're faithful to their King.



La-la-la la-la-la


They will defend you, save you


La-la-la la-la-la


They'll always come to rescue


La-la-la la-la-la


And on their horses they fight - or they sing!


One for all and all for one

Muskehounds are always ready

One for all and all for one

Helping everybody

One for all and all for one

It's a pretty story

Sharing everything with fun

That's the way to be

One for all and all for one

Muskehounds are always steady

One for all and all for one

Helping everybody

One for all and all for one

Can sound pretty corny

If you got a problem chum

Think how it could be!


Marvellous, well done all, especially those who knew it off by heart, like......me!





TTFN