keawakapu

Hi! I agree, Fort-de-France is not for everyone. If fact, I was going to stay on the ship as I didn't fancy Martinique when we had cruised there 10 years ago. If I didn't need to pop out and look for cough syrup and some free wi-fi, I would have stayed on board.

There is definitely some cheesy stuff to be had at the shops and at the vendors. Every port seems to have these things. There is some decent silver jewelry but this is not high end stuff at all.

I did love the print I found. It is very "Restoration Hardware" and it was only $15 so you might find little treasures if you poke around.

Also, if French beauty products don't excite you much, then you likely won't be too smitten by going to the pharmacies here. However for people that want to check things out, it takes about 5 minutes to walk to the pier and check out the vendors and I think you could walk to a pharmacy in ten minutes so you could still have the majority of the day to be on the ship if that is your pleasure.

It is easy place to get free wi-fi at a cafe and catch up e-mails too if you don't want to use up your texting/wifi minutes (if you have purchased a package for this) on board.

I get that it won't be a highlight for some people, but it is an easy place to walk around with no one asking you to buy anything with access to some things that are hard to find outside of Europe.

Hopefully more people will post with ideas or interesting things that they saw to give people some more ideas.

Hello! I wasn't looking forward to Martinique either but I had a great time. I think that it would be interesting to take a tour of the island too but our kids weren't too interested in that and ended up going back to the boat with my mother-in-law. I can't recall the name of the cafe. It had a sign outside mentioning the free wi-fi. If I remember what it was, I will let you know.

As far as the beauty products, if you Google "French pharmacy beauty products" you will find many, many sites dedicated to the topic. Also have a look at: http://www.goop.com/the-french-pharmacy/

Goop is Gwyneth Paltrow's website and she had an article about it that lists some of the favourite products. Some of the top ones to buy are Biafine, Homeoplasmine, A-313, Embryolisse cream, and Bioderma Crealine H20 Micelle. There are many more. Some brands are easier to find in Canada and to some extent, the US but I saw products within the line that I had not seem before. If you have a list on your phone or a list printed off that you can just point to, that would be helpful especially if you don't speak French you can just show them what you are looking for. I paid for my items with my credit card as I didn't have Euros. If you want to pay cash, you will have to pay with Euros.

I also picked up some multivitamins and probiotics for my kids while I was there. The price was great and since they are from France, they are free from artificial colours. There are all sorts of great things to find there!

We did go to Barbados. We went to Harbour Lights beach. It was a very enjoyable day at the beach. The sand was amazing and felt like flour. It was a crowded beach several rows of chairs so if you are hoping to be in the front row, you must show up early. You do have quite a few folks ask if you are interested in water activities but it wasn't excessive and they aren't rude or persistent. You must be getting excited for your cruise!

Oh, one last thing about Martinique. The vendors that are right at the end of the pier have some good things too. I bought a print on linen of a Martinique rum label. The prints were $15 and they were black on a neutral colored linen. They would be great framed. I was hoping to get more and track him down on Etsy but no luck yet. This was my favourite port for shopping. I also looked in a couple of shoe shops and they had some excellent European brands and very good selection. I think you are going to have fun if this is the sort of day you are looking for. At every other port, we did a beach day so this was a nice change. I look forward to hearing how you like it!

Oops, in my post I said things cost much more than in the U.S., I mean to say that they cost much less. Once I figure out how to edit my post, I will change it!!

Thanks

There is an interesting statue of Josephine Bonaparte. The people beheaded the statue as she was hated in Martinque. She had Napoleon bring back slavery so that she could have workers for her estate. A new head was reinstalled but the statue was beheaded again. To this day, her headless statue can be seen. There was also some red paint splattered on the statue to represent blood. Josephine Bonaparte was born in Martinique. There are interesting tidbits of history to be found all over Martinque. If we had more time, I would have like to see the ruins of Sainte-Pierre that were buried by Mount Pelee.

Hello! Check out my post on Martinque. My husband and I loved wandering around the town. The town felt very safe to walk around in. We saw beautiful churches, squares, statues, and a beautiful library. Martinque has good infrastructure as they get money from France. I didn't experience any rudeness at all from people. They just go about their day and they simply let you go about yours. Anyone that I actually engaged in conversation and tried to use French (you have to try to use French, folks...this is an outpost of France after all), were very friendly! I loved being able to walk around and no one ask you buy anything. They have very nice stores and cafes. Think of this as your opportunity to get a little taste of France..have some cafe au laits, munch on croissants, and have a nice French lunch. If you like beauty products, have your list ready and head to one of the pharmacies (look for the green glowing signs). Friendly, helpful staff. I love the Pharmacie Cypria. They are modern, clean, and filled with all of the products you can't buy in the U.S. except for really inflated prices online. I had a most enjoyable day in Martinique. Just try your best to greet people in French and learn how to say "I don't speak French" in French. Lots of the cafes have free Wi-fi too so a good time to catch up on your e-mails as well.

I was planning on staying on the boat in Martinique as on none of the excursions really excited me. We decided that we would just walk around Fort-de-France (the town at the port) and see what it was like. First of all, there are some great vendors right at the end of the pier by the tent. Excellent rum, beautiful prints, jewellery, lovely handmade and natural soap were some of the things that I saw. I picked up a lovely package of tropical soaps for $10. Most of the vendors here take USD. Then we wandered into the town and saw some of the beautiful architecture such as the Bibliotheque Schoelcher. This library was built in France in 1889 then taken apart and shipped to Martinique. The streets were bustling and there were many interesting shops. We stopped into a cafe for some cafe and French pastry (as well as the free wi-fi) and it was very relaxing. The streets reminded me a little of New Orleans. Everyone that we encountered in the stores were very friendly. We tried to do our greetings in French and tell them (in French) that we speak English. Not everyone was able to speak English but they were all polite. It is not a smiley culture but I didn't mind that. It isn't that they don't want you there, they just go about their business and let you go about yours. It was refreshing to not have anyone ask you to buy anything...not even once.

I ended up wandering into one of the many pharmacies with their glowing green signs to buy some cough syrup for one of children. They were so helpful as I tried to explain in terrible French picked up from reading the dual labels on Canadian products. The cashier was even laughing and joking with me. The true magic happened when I wandered into the beauty product section. I could almost hear angels singing. I love Sephora and I love lotions and potions. The pharmacies in France have such a following and many ladies who go to France will spend lots of time and money on French beauty finds that are either really hard to find or really marked up in price in the U.S. or Canada. There are countless blogs and articles online dedicated to the best French pharmacy beauty finds such as Embryolisse, Biafine, Sensibio Bioderma, Cicalfate, Homeoplasmine. If my husband wasn't with me, I could have easily browsed for an hour or more. I bought some Homeoplasmine for about $6USD and some Nuxe Soothing Facial Oil for about $24. They have shelves and shelves of Caudalie, Nuxe, Bioderma, Avene, La Roche-Posay all for much more than you would pay in the U.S. and way more variety. Many of the items are really hard to find in the U.S. The other thing I love about true French beauty products is that Europe is much more strict with what they will and won't allow in personal care products so I feel that most of them have a much "cleaner" ingredient profile than you would find in the U.S. and you know you are getting the true European formulation...no English on the labels here folks. If I had known that I would be able to go to the pharmacies here, I would have had a list on my phone and simply show it to the person at the counter so they could have helped me find them all.

So if you are a lover of beauty products and French pastries, this might well prove to be one of your favourite ports! Save your excursion money, just wander into town, and head to a pharmacy! :)