Trois Ilets
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Tue 16 Jun 2009 20:16
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Trois
Ilets
   Tuesday morning facing the rain we thought we would go ahead and get the
twenty five minute ferry ride across the bay to Trois
Ilets to see the birthplace of Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie - aka
Josephine and learn more about her by visiting the Pagerie Museum. It made
us chuckle waiting for the ferry to arrive, we couldn't see across the bay to
where we going. Then when the ferry inspector came for our money - the fella in yellow, he asked us where to, we said Trois
Ilet "Are you sure". The rain was so hard it was difficult to see out of the window.
  Trois
Ilet, in southern Martinique is a town different from all others found on
the island. This seaside resort is ideal for "away from it all" holidays, with
white sand beaches of Anse Mitan and Anse a l'Ane. There are mangrove swamps
here, La Vatable a state owned forest and Imperatice golf course. All within
walking distance of a naturally protected anchorage. There is also a coffee and
cocoa museum, pottery village, slave swamp and architecture of a military
design.
 
 The walk from the ferry dock showed
the village had had as much rain as we had, the tree will not want watering for
some time.
   Leaving the ferry dock we walked up
the hill past this cute little house, an unusual water
feature and a little house in need "of a bit of
TLC"
The commune owes it's current name to
the three small islets in the bay, Charles, Sixtain and Thebloux; name of their
last owners who exploited lime kilns on them. The town dates back to 1683
and was part of a parish covering River Salt and Benits Three-Islets. Then it
was served by a church built by the Jesuits on the site which is now the
pottery. In 1716 the two parishes detached themselves and Trois Ilet had
it's own new church.
   Notre Dame.
A flower feature by the village square, opposite the tourist
information office. We picked up some leaflets and went for
coffee and cake, to see if the rain would lessen. NO and the coffee was
bracing.
Located in the central square of the
town is the church of Notre Dame de la Bonne Deliverance. The church was built
in 1724 on land granted by Sieur de Montigny and was listed as a historic
building on the 5th of January 1993. Three famous ceremonies have taken place
here - the marriage of Josephine's parents in 1761, her baptism in 1763 and her
mother's funeral in 1807.
 
 The
anchorage. The lady in the tourist office said it was a twenty minute
walk to the museum. She must have been running. A liberation statue outside a block of flats but we
knew we were going the right way.
 Past the golf course she said. Birds
were bathing in the bunkers.
   We turned off the main road and passed
the Parc des Floralies, closed for some four years.
Sad to see it in such a sorry state.
 Even from the road you could see the park was once beautiful, hopefully it will re-open one
day.
   Time to sit and
dry out the Bill and Ben hat. Take a look at some of the fabulous plants and sit in the comfort of the museum admin foyer.
 Where is Jump Jet when you find a
big dongle?
  The gardens here are stunning, lots of
birds enjoying the flowers. In the first photo you can see this little Colibri with his back to us.
The colibri (hummingbird)
is a sacred symbol for the Taino Indians. It is sacred because the hummingbird
is a pollinator and therefore disseminator of new life. It symbolizes the
rebirth of the Taino Indigenous Nation in the Caribbean.
The
bird is found on many Caribbean islands, but the most sacred species is the
Guani, which 500 years ago inhabited all the islands, but today is confined to
Cuba. Although the smallest of the Caribbean hummingbirds, only about the size
of a penny, it is known by the mountain people as the most noble warrior of the
valiant Colibris. In the Caribbean the Colibri is also called Zoom Zoom,
Zumbador, Pajaro Mosca and Guacariga. It is greenish blue in color. The ancient
Taino stories call him the Guaracacigaba or Guacariga, which means the "Rays of
the Sun." They say that the Colibris at one time were flies that were one day
converted into little birds by the Sun Father.  13:00 came for our appointed tour.
Carole was our very knowledgeable guide.
 
 The perimeter
wall showing where the house once stood. The ruins of
the sugar factory and the kitchen where the
artifacts are on display - I was not allowed to take photos
inside.
  The death mask of
Napoleon. A display in the admin foyer and a
plan of the sugar factory.
     Inside the ruins
of the sugar factory, looking up the hill to the
sugar building and the man who made the renovation possible, Dr Robert Rose-Rosette
It had stopped raining by the time we
had spent an hour with Carole, we cannot thank her enough for her patience,
knowledge and interesting tour of the artifacts. Being brave we decided to walk
back rather than get a taxi. An ice pole and another little sit down put us
right for the task.
   En route back to town we watched this
baby butting her mother
expecting mum to kick her away, when she had had enough she just turned on her
heel and trotted off.
Formerly called "Bottom of the Cow
Bag" because of its situation at the bottom of an udder shaped bay, also because
the first inhabitants of Trois Ilets devoted themselves to breeding these
quadrupeds.
 The town even boasts one of those
fancy toilets that does everything except make a cup
of tea.
   The last
look. Skipper deep in his own world and the
empty bandstand pavilion.
 We sat and chatted waiting for the
15:30 ferry back to Fort de France. 6.50 euro's
return.
   The dinghies on
the quayside looked as sorry as Baby Beez had.
  Passing the
anchorage - a hurricane hole - Trois Ilet. Watching a container ship being filled taken from the
ferry.
 The industrial part of the city taken from the
ferry
 Clouds still
threatening as we watched this plane come in to land.
 Fort Louis
from the ferry
We disembarked and Bear fancied
another bimble around the shops. We were standing outside the Cathedral watching
a hearse and mourners leave, quite surprising as the vehicle pulled away with
music blaring, granted it was in keeping with the event- then I was shocked even
more when Bear went flying behind me, across the road, ending in a judo roll. I
leapt to his side to help him up. My knee gave way, I
didn't fight it, I went with it to do myself less damage. "What about cars coming" Oh I
checked for them. That's the first time I have
experienced anyone falling and doing their green cross code as they go. Bear had
offers of chairs, help and people were very kind. He reassured me all was well.
Nonetheless I frog marched - no pun intended - into a chemist to buy a knee
brace. He bumped his gums all the way but tough. First mate's
orders.
   Spot the
difference. After his falling in the road shock, we needed "happy food"
and a sit down. A couple of nice photos of Beez
taken from the Ferry.
Back to the girl for a swim off the
back, shower, supper and a CSI episode.
ALL IN ALL A REALLY
ENJOYABLE DAY OUT EXCEPT FOR WATCHING BEAR FALL. Don't do it again. I'll try not too.
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