Joséphine, sans head

A soft pastell morning. The sun's just rising out of a sleepy sea. Today we're taking the water-taxi to town on the other side of the bay.
Fort de France is a busy little city: The actual fort is off limits. Still military, not museum. Next to it the "Savannah" is a pleasant palm-tree park with what was a large marble statue of Napoleon's Martinique wife, Joséphine. Only she's been decapitated. The red "blood" still running down the white marble, mixing with the political slogans. They aren't too happy about Napoleon here. He reestablished slavery after the French Revolution brought Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité to, uh, some of the French. The other statue we saw in town was of Schoecher. Not decapitated. He fought slavery here, long after it was abolished in the English colonies; the Schoecher Librqry; with its fancy gingerbread façade was brought here from Paris after the 1889 Exposition.

The Market is all fruits and spice. And the special yellow and red plaid cloth that everything is sewed from: skirts and skarves, tablecloths and napkins. Even bikinis? We meet "Fatuhiva" for lunch there, good, typical French Caribbean cuisine. Parfait!