If rum is taken with sugar and lime and the prolific green vegetation is
rustled by the trade winds, you must be in the French West Indies!
Despite their status as a single French department, they seem to be a
long way from France, and it's not just the climate that is different...
One cold winter's morning, you go to the airport, make a 7,000 kilometre
hop, cross the Tropic of Cancer and... stop! Stop where you like:
Pointe-à-Pitre, in Guadeloupe, or Fort-de-France,
in Martinique
These daughters of Africa and Europe, these sisters to the other
Caribbean islands that make up the French West Indies, will then
reveal themselves to you with their indelible images, their remarkable
contrasts and subtle nuances. It is difficult to put all the pieces together
and you have to live there to really understand these little islands
sandwiched between the Atlantic ocean and the Caribbean Sea ...