Saturday, May 8, 2010

Iles de Saintes

From Guadeloupe, we sailed to Iles des Saintes and anchored off the largest town on the largest island - Bourg des Saintes on Terre d'en Haut Island. This is a prosperous fishing village with two storied red roofed buildings with balconies that are decorated with flourishes of gingerbread. Flowers abound in beautiful gardens and homes are furnished with great taste. There is just a bit of a Caribbean feel, but we are definitely still in France. We had one of our best meals yet featuring locally smoked fish, grilled shrimp and tuna with green peppercorn sauce. These islands were never involved in agriculture and so never imported slaves.







Walking is easy on this tiny island although the roads are very narrow and filled with locals and tourists on scooters. We spent a morning exploring the area and various bays on our walk to Fort Napoleon.







Another island, another fort! Fort Napoleon was built in 1867 and is kept in great condition. The grounds contain well maintained gardens that feature various types of cactus.




Everything is colorful on this island.







1 comment:

Kathy said...

Ah, prickly pear! We're seeing lots of them in Siciliy - and they're huge....just like those but these have yellow fruit. Eating and drinking lots! :-)