CHARTER - MARTINIQUE
This is close to the marina Point du Bout
from where a small ferry runs across to
Fort-de-France,. This lively city with busy
streets and air-conditioned shopping
malls is also a good cure in the unlikely
event of home-sickness for Europe. A
good cure for the autumnal wanderlust
on this side of the ocean is a strong “Ti
Punch”, however exclusively made with
original Martinique rum. This “national
drink” of Martinique is made of one
part sugar cane syrup, two parts Rhum
Blanc or Vieux, and a slice of lemon.
Authentically it is drunk in the sweltering
heat of a tropical evening at surround
temperature, only the faint-hearted put
lots of crushed ice into their drink in
secret hope of diluting the highly potent
mixture.
Back in cold Europe, we make the Ti
Punch with the Martinique rum we
brought home with us, drink it without
ice and hope for a magical effect that
will somehow bring us back to Josephine’s
77
wonderful island of flowers…
has played a major role in his life, namely
in the person of the pretty Marie Josephe
Rose de Tascher de la Pagerie, born in
1763 in Trois Islets on the southern shore
of the Bay of Fort de France and known in
the history books as Josephine, Empress
of France and wife of Napoleon. It was an
unhappy liaison between the hot-blooded
and passionate, but in matters of love
also rather simple and naive Corsican and
his refined, beautiful and so not loyal lady
from Martinique, who, as the daughter of
a wealthy planter and plantation owner,
had married the French nobleman
de Beauharnais at an early age. In the
turmoil of the revolution, like so many
colleagues of his social rank, he ended
under the guillotine; Josephine narrowly
escaped this fate and then only because
Robespierre himself had been executed
some weeks before her thereby at least
temporarily stopping the big head-chopping
spree.
It is possible to visit her birthplace in Trois
Islets and anchor in the bay there.