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The Civilized Explorer

Museums and Parks on Martinique, French West Indies

A brief guide to some of the museums and parks for rainy day excursions.

We list prices, but please keep in mind that they are subject to change. At the time of our visit in April 1999, we got about six francs for each dollar.

The Ecomusée is in Riviere Pilote; admission was 20 FF. This museum documents life on Martinique in pre-Columbian times with artifacts of the Caraïbe and Sarawak peoples. There were bows, arrows, and other objects, along with stone bas relief artworks. Post-Columbian times were mostly slavery and sugar plantations, and there were objects related to those times as well. The presentations are all in French, but the objects and photographs (some taken late in the 19th Century) are clear.

This exhibition is on the road to Trois Islet, and the turn off is not at the building; admission was 20 FF. The displays have English translations, but we were less than enchanted with photographs and drawings of the process involved in making rum. The distilleries are still there and were more interesting to us.

This is the plantation of Empress Josephine; admission was 20 FF. All the signs are in French, visitors watch a video, also in French, before the tour, also in French. The plantation is lovely, with attractive ruins; it is adjacent to the Parc Floral and a golf course.

This is a lovely home in the midst of very attractive gardens and ruins of a cane plantation. The first time we went it rained so hard we left before seeing all of the gardens. We went back again on a sunny day and took enough photographs to warrant Céron its own page.

We should mention that if you are on Martinique on a cruise, you should probably avoid any of the locations which have "butterflies" in the name. There are two that we drove by, one we went in. There was a group of Americans there who were in a chauffered van. They were polite, but plainly not impressed; neither were we. The assortment of mounted insects was large but not well shown.

Martinique is a large island and impossible to see on a day trip from a ship. We recommend the distilleries, even if you do not like rum. The distilleries are an interesting industrial process which you can see on a tour without a guide and have an understanding of it. We recommend also spending time exploring the city of Forte de France.