Thursday 2 October 2008

St Francois

Still camera-less, but here is a picture of the beach we were at today, courtesy of http://flickr.com/photos/stoto98/2556691110 I liked this photo as we were in fact in the water right where that lady is in the picture, and we admired the colourful houses with their lovely sea view! This beach is called Plage des Raisins Clairs and is a lovely one that we have only visited twice before in all my visits here. It has more sand than most the beaches here and the little huts with picnic tables (you need to arrive early to get one of these though). It also has that rare luxury...showers! Two high and one for your feet. CassCass spent ages watching two girls use the feet one - I couldn't quite see the fascination!
St Francois is right at the western end of Guadeloupe and so it took us a little while to get there. Funny to hear the girls moaning about the length of the drive when last year we drove them to Scotland! The route was very clear thanks to the petrol strike. Fortunately we had a full tank, as there was not one station selling to the public.

The sea is a lot rougher here but to my surprise the girls loved playing amongst the waves and getting thrown back and forth. Baby JoJo was in a bit of a miserable mood and didn't appreciate going into the cold (relatively speaking!) water, but after we sat together in it for a while, he started banging the water with his fist and even enjoyed the waves trying to knock us over, as it gave him a chance to lick the salty water off his lips!

After our picnic lunch and showers, we went to see Guadeloupe's only Golf Course and therefore a sight of great importance and interest. Especially as I have given Bertie the green light to go and play a round next week! Our hearts sank when we saw them carrying out major work on the greens, but happily they still have 9 holes you can play on.

We continued our drive around the north coast and saw the magnificent scenery which Bertie said Cornwall reminds him of. Here is a taste of it:
CassCass and Baby JoJo were worn out by the sea air, so we had a look at the waves smashing against the rocks with LissaLou and watched a Bernard Hermitt try to pinch Bertie before carrying on our way in search of a sorbet. However, the roads were empty and so were the sorbet stalls - it is evidently low season! So it was another drive through the beautiful countryside of Grande Terre, full of sugar cane fields and very little else, before arriving back to our part of the world where we were greeted by (surprise surprise) huge black clouds and torrential rain.

I have learnt this week that in fact our town gets pretty much the most rain of the entire island! It won't be raining in Basse Terre or Grande Terre or Pointe a Pitre or even 3 km up the road but oh yes, the black clouds will be hanging over us and giving us a soaking. Sigh! At least we are nice and central! I also learnt our area suffers most in a cyclone - typical!!

We finished up our day with our first Roast Dinner since we left London. Unfortunately, I nearly killed both the cooker and the bird (figuratively speaking) by leaving the cover down and the potatoes were very black too! Nor was there any gravy. But it was most delicious anyway and I am looking forward to giving Baby JoJo his first taste of chicken tomorrow and then making some chicken broth with the carcass.

LissaLou went to bed early with a headache and rather hot so I suspect the poor girl has a bit of sunstroke. Hopefully she will be all better tomorrow, but we will have to get stricter about the wearing of hats.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope Lissa lou is better by now - I will bring my hat.
Evie and I are off to Chester today for the scrapbook weekend.

Anonymous said...

I received your camera today and took it straight down to Jessops. They of course send it on to Canon for repair.We now have to wait but whether it will be returned to the shop all hunky dory in time for Mum to bring it over is impossible to say. Their normal quote is three or four weeks, but anything could delay it; on the other hand it is not a busy time and they may get it done quickly. And then you can get your own picture of this lovely scene.