Port de France on Martinique

Columbus was here in the early 1500s. It says so on the cruise ship daily newsletter. As far as I can tell, the island is predominantly French now. All signs are in French and there's a French flag flying over the port city, which happens to be named Port de France.

From the ship, it's a beautifully charming island paradise with gayly colored homes and buildings covering the steep hillsides (below). Ah, those carefree creole islanders really know how to live. By the way, if you zoom in close with your camera on those gayly colored hillside homes of carefree island natives (2nd photo down below), they sometimes lose just a smidgen of their charm. But hey, the important thing is they look good from the ship, especially if you need glasses - like most of us on the ship do.


The charming town of Port de France.


A closer view of Port de France.