Going to Martinique

What to do in Martinique

by Matt Link

It's no wonder that Martinique, in the Lesser Antilles, feels so vintage French—since 1635, France has had a firm foothold on the island. Sandwiched between Dominica to the north and Saint Lucia to the south, Martinique was historically known as the isle with enormous slave plantations, the birthplace of Napoleon's Empress Joséphine, and the site of the 1902 eruption of the Mount Pelée volcano, which wiped out the then central city of Saint-Pierre and its 30,000 people in just three minutes.

Mont Pelée still smolders to this day, but the center of the island has migrated to the town of Fort-de-France, the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the French West Indies. Over a third of the island's population of 400,000 lives here, a town full of antique charm with ornate iron balconies overflowing with...

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