Guadeloupe looks like a butterfly. The two “wings” are called Grande Terre and Basse Terre. The capital is Basse Terre a very small town at the island with the same name. The biggest town is Point á Pitre at Grande Terre. The airport is also placed here.
I went to Guadeloupe in the summer 2005 in order to start school and learn French. The name of the school was Media Langues Caraibes. It is situated in Sainte Anne on the southern coast of Grande Terre. I stayed in this town all 12 weeks of my course. The first 10 days I stayed in a tented room in the house of Katy and Marius Mane. They were Seven Days Adventists and vegetarians. I was served a very small piece of chicken from time to time. They had a 10 years old daughter called Cannelle and who stayed with them. When an older daughter unexpected went home from Paris and the family had promised lodgings for another student who also was a vegetarian then suddenly there were too many people in the house. I was moved to a flat in a small complex of flats called Coco petit Evelyne. The landlady´s name was Evelyne. I stayed there for the rest of the period.
I went to school five days a week both morning and afternoon. In addition we had home work so we did not have much spare time except in the week-ends. Often I rented a car and drove around discovering the two islands. There were many things to see and most of them only accessible by car. There was a bus connection from Point á Pitre through Gossier and St. Anne to St. François along the southern highway. I used the bus if I had to visit one of these cities.
I visited three of the very small islands close to Guadeloupe. Maria Galante is the biggest of the three, and I visited this island with three other students on a day trip. We bought round trip in a car with a guide. I visited Desirade in a week-end. This island is placed west of Grande Terre. There were not much to see and the room I rented was very expensive. The last of the islands I visited was Terre des Haut, one of the islands in the group called Les Saintes. The group is placed south of Basse Terre. It is possible to sail from Trois Rivières on the southern coast of Basse Terre, but I used the much longer route from Point á Pitre.
A special trip was my visit to Dominica. This island is an independent republic, and a former British colony. The language is English. It is placed in between Guadeloupe and Martinique. There is a ferryboat from Guadeloupe to Martinique and they make a stopover at Roseau the capital of Dominica. The time to Roseau was three hours. The trip was made on a long weekend, and I stayed in a Guest House. I arranged a round trip to see the Trafalgar twin falls. Return.