Martinique 3: Saint James Rum

We're staying up in the hills ten minutes outside of the town of Sainte-Marie, which is home to the Saint James rum distillery. "Rhum agricole" is a big deal on Martinique -- it's made from locally-grown sugar cane rather than starting from molasses like other rums -- and Saint James seems like the biggest producer.

We parked in their parking lot on Friday morning, but apparently 8am is "too early" when it comes to rum, so we crossed the street and walked along the shore to the tombolo, a sand spit that leads to a little almost-island with a nice view of town. A group of men were laughing while putting away some fishing nets, and there were already a couple of families enjoying the short climb to the top of the hill.

We headed back before too long, though, because we didn't want to miss the train. A group of volunteers has preserved an old train line that used to bring the sugar cane from the surrounding fields into the Saint James factory, and now tourists can ride it for a few euros each. It had two open cars and a little engine car that put out some pretty serious smoke.

We pulled out of the station very slowly and extremely loudly, stopping about twenty seconds later for the first presentation by the young woman who was to be our accompagnatrice (not our guide, as she somewhat cryptically clarified). She was a real hero, carrying on in the face of noisy kids, snide French tourists, and a politely disinterested group of university students, asking us lots of questions in the Platonic style and seeming almost disappointed in us when we didn't know the answers. She also had to get out and walk onto the road with a red flag at a level crossing. Our favourite part was when we stopped by someone's backyard and she explained about some plants while the driver brought us leaves and flowers he'd hacked off with a machete for us to smell.

The end of the line was a few hundred meters from the Musée de la Banane -- we couldn't go all the way because of a dispute with whoever owns the last stretch of track ("let us know if you have a solution", she presumably joked). So we backtracked and turned off on a siding towards the Habitation La Salle, a 17th-century distillery that was restored and turned into a museum by the Saint James company. It was a beautiful and quiet little spot -- we had the whole thing to ourselves, because for some reason we were the only ones who actually got off the train. We admired the birds flitting around, checked out the old machinery, ate some snacks in the shade, and tasted some fancy free rum before walking back into town rather than waiting for the train.

After some more free rum tasting at the distillery (American barrel aged & Banana flavoured), we had a lunch of fresh seafood in a little second-floor restaurant overlooking the tombolo, plus some incredible ice cream downstairs: 1 scoop of coconut (incredible) + 1 scoop of manioc, which was subtle, with an almost gummy texture. Highly recommended.