Beaches in Martinique

A French overseas department sixty kilometres long that changes completely from end to end. The north is volcanic: Mont Pelée destroyed Saint-Pierre in 1902, killing some thirty thousand people in minutes and leaving a ruined theatre and a prison cell whose occupant was among the two survivors, and the geology responsible is what gives the northern beaches their black sand. The south is flatter, drier and limestone, and that is where the white sand is — Les Salines in the far south is the island's best-known beach, backed by a savannah of petrified trees and a salt pond. The difference across so short an island is total, and the road between the two ends passes rainforest, banana plantation and distillery on the way. Rum is the island's other subject: Martinique holds an appellation of origin for rhum agricole, made from cane juice rather than molasses, and the distilleries are open. Beaches are public by law as in metropolitan France. The season runs December to April, hurricane season June to November, and sargassum affects the eastern Atlantic coast between roughly April and August. Practically: a car is necessary, Creole and French are the languages and English is limited outside the hotels, and ferries connect to Guadeloupe, Dominica and Saint Lucia, which makes an island-hopping route practical without flying.