Until 1902 St Pierre was the capital of Martinique. However, warning rumblings were ignored thanks to pressure on the Mayor from local business owners, and in 1902 the volcano that dominates the skyline erupted violently and 30,000 people lost their lives as a pyroclastic flow engulfed the town. There was said to be only one survivor, a prisoner in the relative safety of a prison cell.

Today it is a charming, slightly tatty town of a few thousand people and very French.

Some of the buildings look as if they might have survived the eruption.

However, the pictures in the small town museum showed a city flattened as if by a nuclear bomb. The remains of the theatre have been preserved and beside it the tiny prison cell in which the only survivor was found.

The old theatre.......

......and a lucky sculpture from the auditorium which survived.

The old prison and the survivor’s cell.

Sadly the anchorage at St Pierre is subject to swells coming around the island and vicious gusts of wind funnelling down from the mountains so we had an uncomfortable night before an abortive attempt to sail north. At the end of the island we had winds up to 38 knots and seas to match so we turned tail and went back as far as Fort de France. This was not such a hardship as this is a pleasant bustling town with some useful shops and an attractive market.

The following day the weather had improved and we were able to make the big jump north to Iles des Saints, a group of islands just south of Guadeloupe and now a major holiday centre for Guadaloupians, Martiniquians and other French visitors. This is another of those places of which we had fond memories from 1982. The islands are as attractive as ever and have not changed too much.

The anchorage off the town

The Mairie - if only a few more Town Halls were like this.