SWEET, SWEET MARTINIQUE

Beach at Cape Chevalier Photo by David Sanger Click on the image for larger version

An island is an island is an island, unless it’s Martinique, a seductive little corner of France in the Caribbean, which combines all the elements of stylish and chic French savoir-faire, with a sensuous and fun-loving Creole joie de vivre.

The Creole language has ample resources when it comes to describe how sweet it is to live in Martinique. “La vi a douce”, “la vi a bel”, “la vi a ka mache” (life is sweet, life is beautiful, life is going just fine), are just a few examples of the many ways life is perceived on the island.

Blessed with lovely beaches, incredible lush vegetation, idyllic climate and a wealth of cultural, artistic and scenic attractions, Martinique is the perfect destination to savor a unique art-de-vivre and to awaken your senses.

Flatter your taste buds

Martinique has many traditions that are celebrated throughout the year, and many of them are accompanied by sumptuous local culinary specialties.

Photo by David Sanger Click on the image for larger version

When noon strikes, it announces the ritual of ti-punch, best appreciated before lunchtime. You have to stop, sit and sip this fiery “eau-de-vie”; “take off!” as the Martinicans say.

There is the tradition of the after-dinner-drink, an aged rum sipped as a digestif. The best aged rums are produced in Martinique and incredibly enough, this small island produces more than 17 different varieties of rums du terroir and has the only rum appellation d’origine contrôlée.

February brings Carnival, a time for revelry and celebration in festive costumes, day in and day out, throughout the island before Lent.

Come Easter, families again gather on the beach. A competition to honor the best matoutou crabe, a popular spicy crab dish, is organized with convincing enthusiasm in Sainte-Anne. A nap in a hamac is mandatory with a late afternoon swim thrown in for good measure, then a refreshing scoop of home-made guava sorbet, churned with patience and love, and call it a day.

When December approaches, Christmas is an occasion for delightful treats. Sit down to a chicken fricassée, a gratin de christophines, home-made petits pâtés, tropical fruit jams and coulies, topped off by a coconut blanc-manger, followed by shrubb, a liquor made from orange peel and sunshine.