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Sensational
beaches are easy to find in Les Saintes. On
Terre-de-Haut, Plage Pompierre is the most popular
beach with its calm waters, excellent snorkeling
and covered picnic tables. However, Pompierre
is often very crowded and windy and, if you
don't watch your things, the ubiquitous goats
can create some problems.
The
small beach at Pain de Sucre is also a favorite
with visitors for swimming and snorkeling. Plage
Crawen, near the Bois Joli Hôtel, was
formerly an official plage naturiste (clothing-optional
beach) but the local politics have recently
changed that. At the end of the airport runway,
Grande Anse (Big Cove) is a magnificent arc
of sand but is definitely not safe for swimming.
On Terre-de-Bas, a second Grande Anse is considered
one of the best beaches in Les Saintes.
Terre-de-Haut,
three miles long and about two miles wide, is
ideally explored on foot. The five-minute walk
from the airstrip to Bourg, the island's sole
village, takes you down a bougainvillea-shaded
lane lined with tiny, brightly-painted houses
and past a centuries-old cemetery. The names
engraved upon the weathered headstones reflect
the island's Breton and Norman ancestry; the
conch shells decorating the graveyard honor
its sailors lost at sea.
If
you don't have the time (or the stamina) to
travel on foot, scooters, bicycles and local
taxi-minivans are easily available in town.
Wherever you wander, the translucent turquoise
waters of the Caribbean await nearby. And you
can walk anywhere, even to the highest point,
Le Chameau, which takes two hours up and back.
At 309 m (l,014 ft), the peak, topped with an
old stone citadel, affords a sweeping panorama
not only of Terre-de-Haut, but of the seven
other islands that constitute the archipelago
of Les Saintes: Ilet a Cabrit, Le Pâté,
Terre-de-Bas, Les Augustins, La Coche, Grand
Ilet, and La Redonde. The experience is breathtaking
any time of day, but at dawn or dusk it becomes
the memory of a lifetime.
Among
Terre-de-Haut's year-round points of interest,
one of the most rewarding is Fort Napoleon,
an historical oddity built by the French over
a century ago and totally restored by groups
of young volunteers about l8 years ago. What
makes the fort so unusual is that it has been
used over the years for a number of things,
but never for war. Nobody has ever fired a shot
at it or from it. Guided tours do tell of the
famous l7th- and l8th-century battles of Les
Saintes, and there are mementos on exhibit,
but the fort's museum collection of 250 modern
paintings contains not a single one with a military
theme. The fort, and an iguana similar to those
seen scurrying up the ramparts, figure prominently
in the islands' coat of arms.
The
conservator of the fort stresses two points
for visitors: come in the morning (the hours
are 9:00 to noon) and bring a camera. The views
are a photographer's dream and the flowering
cactus gardens surrounding the fort are among
the most exotic and best maintained in the Caribbean.
Directly across the bay, atop Ilet a Cabrit,
sit the ruins of Fort Josephine, named for Napoleon's
first wife, born l20 miles south on the French
island of Martinique.
You
should be able to find most things you want
or need in the interesting shops and boutiques
of Bourg. Clothing, souvenirs, unique soaps
and scents of the island, as well as beautiful
works of art by a number of local artists are
all available in the small but bustling shops.
There are also several grocery stores and a
pharmacy as well as open-air vegetable and fresh
fish markets along the waterfront.
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