Marie Galante
We have just spent three days in Marie Galante, and felt the island deserved a blog entry to itself!
Marie Galante is a little island just to the South of Guadeloupe, and, like its big brother, is French. It is also an incredibly relaxed and charming spot. Our sail up to Marie Galante was challenging – close hauled in strong winds and fairly big seas, but conditions settled as soon as we reached the anchorage by the town of Port Louis on the west coast.
Going ashore we encountered a quiet, almost deserted town, with a number of restaurants, all serving very French cuisine, and great views back over the bay towards our boat. Signs ashore warned against smoking joints, and reinforced the feeling that we could have been in a French holiday resort on the Brittany coast.
By chance we met an English couple, Julia and Julian, who recommended a route to drive around the island, se we duly booked a hire car and set off the next day
Our drive took us along the coast to the North of the island, where we stopped to visit the (locally) famous Gueule Grand Gouffre, a natural bridge in the cliff formed by erosion, then across to the centre of the island for visits to ancient (and no longer working) windmills and a rum distillery. We stopped for a delicious seafood lunch – tataki of Marlin – at a restaurant in the resort town of Capesterre in the Southeast of the island, and admired the expert kite surfers who blasted across the bay performing aerial tricks as they went.
On the drive back to our boat we stopped for a cooling dip in the sheltered bay just to the south of where we had anchored. That evening we went back ashore for another seafood meal at yet another lovely beachside restaurant.
By the next day we were ready for a more relaxing time, and the gentle atmosphere of the island was perfect – time to relax, potter ashore to buy bread from the local boulangerie, and plan our onward passage to Guadeloupe. We could have happily stayed many days longer…
