Carnival – Day 1
Since we have arrived in Martinique, there has been much talk of carnival. It is a serious matter here with lengthy preparation and practice every weekend. The whole island resonates to the sound of drums and bands for weeks before the main event. We were told that Fort de France would have the best parades, so we decided to anchor in Fort de France bay for the duration, not wanting to miss anything and that was the right decision. Five whole days of carnival, parades, music and general merriment and we did not miss a beat.
Saturday 25th Feb
The first day the queens of the carnival were paraded around the streets. The little one were so cute in their traditional costumes. The theme of the parade was sustainable development so many costumes were made of newspapers, cardboard boxes and plastic bottles and any other thing you could get your hands on. A lot of thought had gone into this and it was cleverly done. Vaval the king of carnival was a 5 metres high figure strait out of Asterix the Gaul. Tongue firmly in cheek, this represented the misinformation that generations of French school children were taught from an early age that we all descended from the Gaul regardless of where you were from. Easier to believe in metropole than out here. I am sure that some adjustments have been made in the DOM – TOM to allow for more local history to be taught.
The atmosphere is very good, loads of families with small children and relatively few tourists. It really feels like a small town where everyone just comes down for the afternoon. The sea front was lined with tents selling an enormous array of sequined clothes, hats, wigs and various other tutus, carnival masks, fishnet tights and gloves, all very colourfully swinging in the breeze. Most of the shops are decked up with banners and windows are dressed in a carnival theme. Definitely taken seriously. We love the dancing pineapples and the pretty fruit ladies.
The evening parade is dedicated to the Bradjack… I had never heard of it so when we found a gathering of custom cars and other vehicles in the bus station we could only assume that they were the bradjack. What a noise they made! Again a lot of imagination, time and effort had been expended on those. Some were very political and some were obviously referring to local issues and concerns. All the cars were swamped with teenagers sitting or standing on car roofs and bonnets, going round and round the circuit. And in between the cars, we are treated to a few more bands and some majorettes.