Arriving on Guadaloupe in the early evening, we picked up our hire car before proceeding to find our first night's accommodation. This was best described as "interesting". I guess it was clean enough and we did have air conditioning but the facilities were somewhat spartan. Let's just say we were glad that we were only staying one night before moving on to our first proper destination - Deshaie.
Anyway we packed up and set off to find some breakfast, getting the first view of the sea surrounding the island, blue sky and the local culture. We parked up and, grabbing a couple of fresh croissants at a boulangerie (Guadaloupe is quite French in many respects - the ready availability of delicious fresh bread and croissants amongst them). Walking down towards the sea we could see that the town we were in, Le Gosier, was situated in the middle of a bay sheltered by an island and a reef. We would visit the island by kayak later in the trip but for now it made for an interesting first photo.
Having eaten our breakfast of croissants and juice overlooking the sea, we set out on the journey over to the other island of Basse Terre and around the top. Yes, I was surprised to discover that the island of Guadaloupe is in fact two islands separated by a narrow channel.
On the way we needed coffee and this proved harder to find than we expected. In this respect the island is somewhat different to mainland France, the number of cafes is certainly lower. We eventually did find coffee in the small town of Saint Rose on the north coast. A lovely little town with a nice sea front, a few very nice cafes and a guy who makes hand painted T shirts. He had one with a sort of saxophone so, of course I had to buy it.
The sea front at Saint Rose
And so, suitably refreshed, and a few Euros poorer, we made our way around to Deshaie.
Deshaie is the small town where much of the TV series Death in Paradise is filmed, home to the iconic red church tower, the police station, the small harbour and the bar where they usually finish the day with a local beer. In the series it is know as Honore. It is indeed a pleasant little town with a couple of small supermarkets, a number of souvenir shops and several beach front bars with terraces. There is a large car park on the southern edge which, once you have wrestled with the payment system, provides a very decent level of car parking.
We arrived at lunch time and thought it would be nice to get something to eat in one of those beach front bars. Sadly this was not to be as they were all full and fully booked. It would seem that Deshaie is a key place on the tour itineraries from the larger hotels and, I suspect, cruise ships.
In the end we found a delightful little boulangerie with a couple of table outside and had a perfectly nice baguette sandwich, a couple of beers and a couple of pastries. My mate, Dennis' eyes proved a little bigger than his stomach and he couldn't eat all of his desert on this occasion. Very nice, it was, but somewhat too large.
Deshaie - the image so often seen on Death in Paradise.
Replete, we drove the final few miles to our residence in the village of Ferry. This one, Duplex La Riviere, proved to be very pleasant indeed. We had a kitchen/ sitting room, two very good bedrooms each with access to a decent balcony at the front and a further seating area at the back. Our host, Ludgy, was excellent - friendly, helpful made sure we were comfortable.
We made ourselves at home, sat on the balcony with a welcome cup of tea (and then a few beers) before finding our way to a place I had selected for our dinner. This was a little place on the edge of the village called Fritay by Myron, essentially a street food place with seating.
We chose barbequed pork steaks with salad and chips and a couple more beers and it was bloody lovely. With a total cost of only 20Euros for both of us this was a brilliant end to a good first day.
Dinner at Fritay by Myron