Fort-de-France: Caribbean France at the foot of a volcano

Capital of Martinique, a French overseas department, Fort-de-France coexists with the memory of the 1902 eruption that destroyed the then-capital Saint-Pierre.

The center, at the foot of Pelée volcano, is comfortably explored on foot.

The Schœlcher Library, a building in Art Nouveau style transported piece by piece from the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889, remains one of the most unusual monuments of the French Caribbean.

A short walk away, Fort Saint-Louis, still-active fortress of the French Navy, dominates the entrance of the bay from its strategic position, visitable with guided tours.

Continuing on, you visit the Grand Market, a covered market where spices, tropical fruit, and local rum are sold under a nineteenth-century iron structure.

Toward evening, a Creole restaurant of the center proposes cod accras and agricultural rum produced in the island's historic distilleries, often served with lime and sugarcane.

The 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée destroyed the then-capital Saint-Pierre in minutes, killing nearly the entire population; Fort-de-France inherited the capital role directly as a result of that tragedy.

The Schoelcher Library, disassembled and reassembled by ship from France after a Paris exhibition, remains a rare case of a European Art Nouveau building transferred intact to the Caribbean.