14:35.95N  61:04.15W

 

Saturday 12 April 2014

 

Yesterday afternoon and this morning we went ashore to have a ‘shufty’.  From the boat Fort de France looked like a pretty place and the photographs in the pilot book make it look very attractive.  Once there it was clear that Fort de France is a ragged around the edges – and the centre.  It has a lot of character but it looks as though the shopping centre which was built a few years ago might have killed off everything else.

 

Some of the best bits:-

 

 

 

 

 

We expected lots of cafes and street tables but apart from this one in the pedestrian area we didn’t find any:-

 

 

 

The Palais de Justice:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fountain outside the Town Hall:-

 

 

 

When we got back to the dinghy we could see it had been tampered with and somebody had tried to start the outboard engine.  There had been some schoolchildren playing nearby and jumping in and out of the sea earlier and we suspect they were larking about.  The security cable and lock was intact and everything was thankfully in one piece albeit a little muddy and dirty.

 

We were glad to see Fort de France but will probably only use it as a convenient stopping place in future.