Fort-De-France, Martinique...

As usual, I was up early today for sail in photos. The lighting was a little tricky, but I worked around it.  Cathy & I got off the ship first thing and strolled along the Malecon adjacent to the Bay of Fort-de-France towards Fort Saint-Louis and the La Francaise Beach. Fort-de-France is the capital of the Caribbean Island of Martinique, a French overseas territory. The city is colorful and mostly colonial, with a few more modern buildings popping up along its waterfront. From the Fort we started our own walking tour by the Savannah Park passing the Pre-Colombian Archaeological Museum, the Post Office to the Schoelcher Library the architectural icon of Fort-de-France, the entire library was first built in France in 1889, then shipped piece by piece to the island. From here we looped around the block, and I was able to get a clear shot of the Calvaire Chapel that overlooks the city. We then headed towards St. Louis Cathedral, a nice stop. Beautiful church!  In this area of the city, some of the buildings are a little dilapidated and run down, however there are some gems that have a lot of character. Nowadays, a walk around would not be complete without finding some street art. Once back on the ship we retired to the Retreat the for the rest of the day and I continued snapping photos as the lighting improved dramatically. Just another great day! As we prepared for departure, the Captain announce that we would be sailing past Mount Pelée.  It is still an active volcano with its most devastating eruption in 1902 when it killed more than 29,000 people. Of course, that meant that I would have to leave my working on the blog to go out and snap even more photos…  My work is never done!  Looking forward to dinner in the Tamarind this evening with Mustafa, the Hotel General Manager who is leaving the ship January 7, 2023. We have really enjoyed the time that we’ve spent with him on the Nieuw Statendam… We hope we have the opportunity to sail with him again sometime in the future...