An hour’s ferry on quite rough sea brought us to Marie Galante, an island shaped like a pancake. Famous for being windy and once having 78 windmills.
We stayed in a very well designed small house, with a lovely deep pool and an outdoor kitchen, among flowers and fruit trees.
East coast is where the calm white sandy beaches are, the most beautiful and unfortunately most popular bay is Anse Canot. We prefer a bit less crowded and stayed at the beaches near St Louis, also less windy and better clarity.
We walked a few hiking trails on the Wild West coast, with rugged terrain and cliffs. I like very much the strong mix of colours, deep blue sky and sea, rich green vegetation, vibrant pale blue agitated waves splashing on to dark brown rocks.
Sentier aux galleries
Sentier a Pointe Plate
Care au coq
Being so famous for windmills, and we can see a lot of ruins around, finally managed to find the only renovated one, Moulin de Bezard, to visit.
Normally windmills were built to grind grains, this is the first time I see windmills installed with metal drums to press sugar cane, to get the juice to make sugar and rum.
Built in the height of cane sugar and rum era in the early 19C, and lasted just 50+ years as the production of sugar from sugar beet is cheaper and easier. Now, there is one sugar factory and three brands of rum left in the island.
We went to rum tasting at the factories, it is also the first time I tasted rum neat. Normally it is used in cocktails or I used it to macerate fruit and spices as rum is one of the cheapest alcohol to buy. I am pleasantly surprised to find nice flavour in straightforward white rum, it is possible to sip and enjoy it as such.
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