The Mansion of an Old Plantation
Some 2 km. before reaching Basse-Pointe, a narrow highway turns to the left, through sugar cane fields until arriving to Leyritz Plantation, an ancient plantation, transformed into an elegant hotel with luxurious suites. The former slave’s barracks have been restored, and are now bungalows for tourists. In front of one of them, is a placard saying: “Spa and health club”. The old sugar mill hosts now, the restaurant, but the gem of this place is, surely, the ancient mansion, built in 1700, surrounded by 6.5 has. of tropical gardens, open to public. Inside its thick stonewalls, there is a luxurious wooden furniture, giving the place a certain European air.

In the rooms, the old owners slept without remorse, of the inhuman exploitation of hundreds of slaves, because they had no doubts, that the church was right; that the black slaves, as well as the animals, had no soul.

If you take the north coast highway, passing next to beautiful wild beaches, where the Atlantic waves crash (remember is dangerous to swim in these waters), a stop is worth in Sainte-Marie, to visit the Musée du Rhum (open from Monday to Friday, and on Saturday and Sunday mornings; free entrance), of the St. James distilleries. The museum offers a voyage through the history of sugar and rum in Martinique since 1765. The visit includes free tasting of the famous rum. The highway goes down, along the Atlantic coast, until arriving to La Trinité, a little town located in a protected harbor, marking the start of Presqu’ile de la Caravelle, a peninsula extending along 13 km. towards the Atlantic Ocean. The Parc Naturel de la Martinique protects the most part of this peninsula. This is a good place for trekking, and the beautiful beaches offer visitors the opportunity of practicing all kinds of water sports. On the eastern end of the peninsula, emerge the ruins of Château Dubuc, a castle with a strategic location, and that was residence of pirates and smugglers.

Josefina and the South
From the dock in front of the park La Savane, regularly depart ferries, called vedettes that cross the Fort-de-France harbor. From this dock also leaves the Somatour, a boat taking you, in only half an hour, to Pointe du Bout, on the other side of the harbor.

Taxi drivers wait anxiously the arrival of the ferry, to take passengers to the Musée de la Pagerie (open from Tuesday to Sunday; closed at noon on weekends; entrance fee), a museum located just outside of Les Trois-Îlets. An old signal indicates the route to the place where Empress Josephine was born. Baptized as Marie-Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, she abandoned Martinique when she was only 16 years of age, to marry, in Paris, with the Viscount of Beauharnais. In France, this young woman found immediately, a place among the Parisian society. However, fifteen years later, she witnessed, with horror, the decapitation of her husband at the guillotine, among the revolutionary turmoil. Two years after her husband’s death, at 33 years old, she married Napoleon Bonaparte. Her home town of Les Trois-Îlets is in ruins, after a fire destroyed it. However, inside this museum are preserved some remembrances of her life and loves, among which is a marriage certificate, and a love letter written by Napoleon.

A walk of about 15 minutes through the fields, will take you back to Les Trois-Îlets, a little charming town, where is the Parc des Floralies (open daily, entrance fee), a botanical garden full of flowers and exotic trees, with tables for picnics, while enjoying the sight of a nearby golf field, with 18 holes, designed by Robert Trent Jones.

Following the winding highway that borders the southeast peninsula of Martinique, you’ll reach Les Anse-d’Arlets, a quiet fishermen town, where there is a small wooden dock built over the crystalline waters of the harbor. After few kilometers, and some curves, you’ll reach Le Diamant, a town with a great selection of hotels and restaurants. Its beach, the biggest in the island with almost 4 km. long, suffered the passing of the last hurricanes, but the sand is still white and smooth like talc. On weekends, it is full of people.

One and a half kilometers from the coast, you can see the unmistakable silhouette of the Rocher du Diamant (diamond rock), a remote isle of volcanic origins, that for some time was part of the British Empire. In 1805, a group of 100 British soldiers, armed with cannons, took the rock. Entrenched in this little isle, they fired at any French ship getting closer to the place, which they called HMS Diamond. The reason that took the British to resist for such a long time in the rock was its strategic position that enables controlling the waters of the channel between Martinique and St. Lucia, on the south. After 18 months of siege, the French finally defeated these soldiers, and overthrew them.