The bay of Bourg des Saintes, the only town of Isles des Saintes (part of Guadeloupe), is well buoyed with visitor moorings (€11/night) which precludes anchoring, for which it is necessary to go round to Pain du Sucre or one of the other protected anchorages away from the town. The popularity of the Saintes is such that the number of visitors has grown to fill all the available moorings, making availability uncertain, especially when arriving late in the day, as we did.  After spending our first night on the most northerly mooring, we moved the following day to one further south along the beach to avoid the steep waves coming into the bay from the Guadeloupe channel which made even a catamaran roll.

 

The town remains delightful with a variety of eateries, bars and gift shops covering most budgets and displaying typical Gallic charm in a tropical setting.  The highlight of the visit has to be Fort Napoleon built in 1867 and standing atop a 130m hill with stunning views of the islands and an excellent display of the well kept fort and grounds which includes an interesting local museum.  The museum includes exhibits of the Battles of the Saintes (1782) when the British fleet under Admiral Rodney destroyed Admiral De Grasse’s French fleet:  Just one of the Caribbean’s many military actions of the period when European powers were vying for supremacy of the islands.  The walk up to the fort is only about half a mile, but is quite steep; fortunately, the views merit many stops along the way.

 

The beautifully kept grounds are home to many large iguanas, which tend to stay in the rougher undergrowth but are easily found.  Their numbers seem to have diminished since I last visited a decade ago, but they remain an exciting reminder of their dinosaur ancestors.

 

The Bourg des Saintes mooring area

 

Pain au Sucre anchorage

 

Fort Napoleon

 

Iguanas at Fort Napoleon

 

Chris and Sue showing the view from Fort Napoleon