Pointe-à-Pitre is the commercial and industrial capital of the island. Every day this noisy city is full of workers coming from outside. Though it is true, that the outskirts have nothing worthy, when you go into the old zone of Pointe-à-Pitre, you’ll discover its charm.

The most fervent admirers of Place de la Victorie, regret that the ancient park, where palm trees grew, and where high class children used to play, watched by their nannies, is now a parking place, after, in 1989, hurricane Hugo uprooted the trees. Hughes ordered the guillotine to be placed here, so the people could witness the bloody end of the condemned plantation owners. Now, visitors can enjoy the noise of the port, and the colonial buildings bordering the square, sitting down in one of the cafes. The square is open by La Darse side, from where ships depart to Marie - Galante and Les Saintes islands. An investment of twenty million dollars, has transformed the old warehouses of the dock at Centre St John Perse, into a modern cruiser station, with a hotel and many restaurants, as well as eighty shops.  

Behind the port, at the Rue Nozieres, is the Musée St John Perse (open from Monday to Saturday, entrance fee), a small museum at a restored colonial house, dedicated to the life and deeds of poet Alexis Saint-Leger, who was born in Guadeloupe in 1887, among a béké family, and better known by the name of St John Perse. Though he abandoned the island being 12 years old, and never came back, Perse idealized the Caribbean in his poetry, and in 1960, was granted the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Just one block from the port is Rue Frébault, the noisiest street in the city, plenty of shops, where salesclerks do not like bargaining; the opposite happens at Marché Couvert (covered market), where women bargain graciously.

Close to the market, at Rue Peyner, is the Musée Schoelcher (open from Monday to Saturday, entrance fee), dedicated to the figure of Victor Schoelcher, a French politician that fought bravely against slavery in the French Antilles, and that signed the decree abolishing slavery, definitively, in 1848. Back to Place de la Victorie, turn to the left by Rue Nozieres, and, you will immediately find the Marché aux Fleurs (flowers market), in front of which is the impressive St. Pierre et St. Paul basilica.

Exploring Grande-Terre
In Grande-Terre, the plain landscape of sugar fields, permits, once in a while, to see the silhouette of a huge sugar stone mill, and some mango of thick and green foliage. However, if you leave Pointe-à-Pitre, by the N4, the south coast highway, after only 3 km. you’ll reach Bas-du-Fort, one of the biggest sporting ports in the Caribbean. At the hillside behind the port, is Fort Fleur-d’Épée (open daily, free entrance), a fort built with coral in the XVIII century.

Another 3 km, will take you to Le Gosier, the major tourism center in Guadeloupe. Here you will find endless small family restaurants; maybe the service is a little bit slow, but without doubt, a Ti punch (a mixture of rum and sugar cane syrup) will make waiting pleasant. This is the authentic Guadeloupe. By night, the city is very lively with the sound of zouk.

There are many white sand beaches along the Atlantic southern coast, but in the small town of Guadeloupe, 14 km. east of Le Gosier, is one of the best of the island. If you go on 14 km. to the east, you’ll reach St Francois. This place was, until recently, a little fishermen village. Now, has its own airport for small private planes, and the only golf field in Guadeloupe, apart from many resorts and a port, from where ferries depart regularly to the island of La Desirade, 10 km. far away. A narrow road leads you from St. Francois to Pointe des Châteaux, the eastern point of the island. The Caribbean and Atlantic waters join in this primitive landscape, where waves burst against the rocks. Since 1951, a huge white cross emerges at the top of this promontory, from which you can see spectacular views.

Precolumbine Treasures
Back to N5, the highway going north, drive 13 km, and you’ll reach Le Moule, a port city that used to be Guadeloupe’s capital, and in the beach you’ll find lots of bars and restaurants to enjoy a rum cocktail, or a good sea food dish. Nearby is the town of La Rosette, and the Musée Archeologique Edgar Clerc (open from Monday to Saturday; close at noon, entrance fee), where one of the most important archaeological collections of pre-columbian objects of the Caribbean, is exposed. The building was designed by Jack Berthelot, one of the most important figures of the independence movement in Guadeloupe, and who died in 1984, in a car bomb attack.

If you are looking for quiet and lonely coves, there are some along the north coast. But if you decide to go to Pointe de la Grande Vigie, in the northern end of the island, you better take N8, the inner highway taking to the north through a hawthorns and acacias landscape.

Back to Pointe-à-Pitre, stop at Morne-à-l’Eau, a town where is one of the most beautiful graveyards in the Caribbean, a real death’s city with funeral palaces. In November, the day of All the Saints, lots of candles light the night at such magic place.