Wednesday 31st oct
We need to get off the boat. Time to go and explore, the habitation clement is only a 40mn ride away in the bus up to le François . the little town is very quiet. the church on the piazza is huge and very interesting. I would suspect that some of it was destroyed probably by a hurricane, with only the front porch surviving. The rest of the building has been rebuilt using red bricks and a challenging design but it does work beautifully. We have a bit of a walk to reach the rhumery along the road, passing a cemetery, we’ll have to have a look at it on our way back. The road is not so busy and it is edged by fields after fields of banana trees. The bananas are all wrapped up in blue plastic and all the flowers have been cut. Il very much looks like a day of the triphids.
On the way back we stop in the cemetery in le François. It is a hive of activity; the first of November is bank holiday in France and so there is a long weekend of 4 days for all saints day and the day of the dead, which is big in both Martinique and Guadeloupe. All the graveyards are being cleaned up, tombs given a white wash , gold lettering is being re-applied, old artificial flowers disposed off. People are very chatty and explain how important the day is. There is a lovely atmosphere with all generation helping to make the graves look tidy.