| Show 6T The Salt Lake Tribune Sunday January 10 1988 Martinique Josephine’s flamboyant spirit is strongest at La Pagerie by William A Davis Boston Globe Writer FORT DE FRANCE Martinique — The recent TV miniseries “Napo- leon and Josephine” had its flaws but was accurate on one point: Bonaparte the great tactician was consisby a shrewd tently creole beauty from Martinique Josephine who became empress of France was born Tascher de la Pagerie in the pretty little village of Trois-Ilet- s ne£r Fort de France the island capishe left Martital As a teen-age- r nique for France but has never been forgotten here Indeed she remains an admired local heroine There is a statue of the empress on La Savane the waterfront park that is the heart of Fort de France An imposing white marble affair the statue was erected in the 19th centuEmperry at the behest of an or Napoleon III — Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew — and looks across the capital’s sheltered bay to Josephine’s birthplace The sense of Josephine’s vivacious and flamboyant spirit is strongest in Martinique at La Pagerie the family in-la- plantation in Trois-Ilet- s The Taschers were very minor aristocrats and by the standards of the time theirs was a modest estate: 400 acres worked by about 150 slaves Still the future imperial consort (who seemed a country bumpkin to sophisticated Parisians) grew up in a manor house waited on by a corps of servants and surrounded by gardens of fragrant hibiscus and frangipani Hurricanes and the centuries have battered La Pagerie Nothing remains of the main house but a low outline of the walls and the sugar mill once the heart of the plantation ruin Howevis a vegetation-covereer the setting is still lushly beautiful — there is a giant tulip tree that Josephine may well have played under and some plantation outbuildings hve survived The fieldstone former kitchen is intact for one and is now the La Pagerie museum created by a local veterinarian who had a lifelong interest in the empress and assiduously collected Josephiniana She was a fascinating if sometimes maddening woman and it is an interesting collection on display are t Among the items paintings and drawings of Josephine at various stages of her life from ambitious young flirt to first lady of the empire her childhood bed some dresses and toilet articles some of the bills for her extravagant finery (she cost the emperor about as much to maintain as a guards regiment kaid her critics) and invitations to balls and the imperial coronation g Also a letter from a lovelorn and lonely Napoleon away bn a campaign “What are you doing now? You are sleeping aren’t you?” d blush-inducin- goes an excerpt “I am not there to inhale your breath to contemplate your charms and crush you with my caresses near you one regrets that a thousand it is not always night kisses everywhere everywhere!” La Pagerie has a gift shop selling Josephine mementos and island crafts and also a small restaurant where one can buy a cold beer or a potent rum punch sit by the great tulip tree and toast the still glowing memory of the creole empress The Josephine museum is near the deluxe four-sta- r Bakoua Beach Martinique’s largest privately owned resort hotel which — as the name implies — has a beach a popular one (female sunbathers are usually topless a la Francaise) and also stages a dinner show with creole food and native entertainment by a riveting dancers A troupe of island tour inpopular cludes stops at the Bakoua Beach where beside La Paand Trois-Ilet- s Mai-so- n gerie there is the de la Canne — a museum of the sugar industry and its most popular byproduct rum — and then a leiand surely drive along the d South Coast lovely There are no heavy attractions on the South Coast just good beaches and pleasant tropical scenery Purple-green hills rise on one side (including far in the distance the volcano Mount Pelee) and a shimmering blue sea stretches away on the other The shoreline is dotted with somnolent mostly untouristed fishing villages: Anse a L’Ane where there is a tiny museum devoted to seashell crafts (one intricate shell tableau depicts the crowning of Napoleon III) Diamant which boasts a beach Ste magnificent Luce Marin Ste Anne etc These South Coast villages manage to be both very Caribbean — filled with goats and kids and a tad ramshackle around the fringes — and also very French As do the small hamlets of Metropolitan France (of which Martinique is legally a part) each clusters around a formal little square with a memorial por les morts of the mother country’s wars and where the tricolor flutters in front of a minuscule mairie There are fine beaches and coves for swimming and picnicking all along the South Coast and also resjust-opene- d laid-bac- k beach-rimme- Rock a very visible offshore pinnacle that is now merely scenic but once played an important role in world affairs In 1804 during the Napoleonic Wars the Royal Navy surprised the French and landed a force of 110 men on the rock which commanded the southerly approaches to the island Commiscalled sioned as a HMS Diamond Rock the improvised fortress held out for 18 months despite repeated attacks The French finally captured Diamond Rock with a ruse worthy of Ulysses: They weakened the garrison’s resolve by floating over barrels of powerful local rum Great Britain considers the sailors to be heroes nonetheless and Diamond Rock is still carried on the rolls as a naval vessel and rates a full dress salute from passing British warships Another popular driving excursion is to St Pierre the former capital Located 42 miles north of Fort de France — about an hour’s drive through the sugar fields of central Martinique — St Pierre was an elegant colonial town known as “the Paris of the West Indies” Then in 1902 the volcano Pelee erupted and in three terrifying minutes the entire town was engulfed in hot ash More than 30000 people were buried alive Only one person survived — a prisoner in the local jail who was buried up to his neck in burning ash but lived to tour the world as a curiosity with the Barnum & Bailey Today Pierre stop to enjoy a cool drink in a sidewalk cafe or do a bit of shopping with a clear conscience The shopping in Fort de France is famous and an important reason why the city is such a popular cruise port In the high winter season there are usually four or five cruise ships in harbor on any given day The principal department store is Roger Albert on Rue Victor Hugo the main street Long a shoppers’ magnet Roger Albert recently doubled its size and now resembles a mini-maLike other tourist-oriente- d shops in Fort de France Roger Albert is staffed by chic charming St partially excavated is a fascinating if somewhat melancholy place The ruins of the opera house and other public buildings stand eerily alone surrounded by a jungle of trees that has sprouted from the rich volcanic soil There is a Volcanic Museum founded by an American archeologist with a collection of photographs of St Pierre and many bizarre relics of its destruction Among the excavated artifacts are dishes of petrified spaghetti musical instruments molded into bizzare shapes by the intense heat and a case full of twisted clocks and watches — all stopped for eternity at the same terrible moment Although it doesn’t have the elegant public buildings that graced old St Pierre Fort de France is also sometimes referred to as “the Paris of the Caribbean” That may be an exaggeration but it is definitely “La Grande Pomme” — the big apple of the French West Indies The city clusters around the bay d which is guarded by Fort St Louis a historic fortress built by Vauban the great military engineer Truth to tell there are not many real sights to see in Fort de France and those are mostly in the vicinity of the Savane After checking out the Josephine statue admiring the fort and looking at the Romanesque cathedral the colonial-styl- e Martinique Museum and ornate little Schoelcher Library (the French Antilles pavilion at the 1889 Paris Exposition) even the most conscientious tourist may n 15 distilleries perfumes English-speakin- g which of- ten cost half as much as in the states An ounce of “Calandre” by Paco Robanne that sells for more than $150 in Boston or New York for example goes for $63 at Roger Albert Yves St Laurent’s very popular “Opium” selling for nearly $190 in American department stores can be had for $115 in Martinique And the classic “Chanel No 5” retailing for around $185 in Jordan Marsh or Bloomingdale’s sells for a little over $90 on Rue Victor Hugo For information about Martinique and the other French islands of the Caribbean write to French West Indies Tourist Board 610 Fifth Ave New York NY 10020 ll and on the island and a fifth of the best dark rum costs about $5 — Martinique prices for French goods reflect the current weaker state of the US dollar in relation to the French franc But there are bargains to be had — particularly for Martini-quaise- s and stacked from floor to ceiling with mostly French-mad- e luxury goods These include watches crystal leather goods jewelry lighters and perfumes Lots of perfumes Although locally made products such as rum are cheap — there are high-walle- JHOMAS TOURS and CRUISES CARNIVAL DEPARTURE Enjoy Romantic Mexico Cruise the Fun Ship for 7 Days Only $799 Including Air from Salt Lake City taurants specializing in freshly caught local fruits de mer particularly langouste the exquisite rock lobster Among the good creole restaurants in this part of the island are L’Amphore Bambou and La Bonne Auberge Chez Andre at Anse Matan and Filets Bleu 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