King School Martinique 2018

June 12, 2018

On an early Connecticut morning, the King School French students started their adventures. At 3am, we left our school and headed to Jfk. We took a 3 hour flight to Miami and a three hour flight here, to Martinique. When we landed, Katie greeted us at the gate with a warm welcome and a huge smile. She led us to our bus and gave us some popular French snacks. We took the bus to our hotel and we had our first team meeting. After our meeting, we went to the beach and enjoyed fun games and splashing in the ocean. The waves were insane! We then headed to dinner and played some more games and gave each room a group name (etc Jellie). We had an amazing first afternoon and can’t wait for more fun tomorrow!

– By Jamie

June 13, 2018

After an early wake up, we had delicious breakfast filled with different cereals and fruits. After a bus ride, we arrived in the capital, Fort de France. We learned the capital had changed because the first one had been destroyed and the new capital was the port. During our visit to the capital we saw many different types of architecture, mostly old but some modern. We found out the city had been rebuilt many times due to flooding and fire. We walked to the spice market which was outside due to the building being unsafe for use. The vanilla smelled great. We did a scavenger hunt where we had to ask the shop owners about spices. Then we took a boat to the Martinique slavery museum. After that we took a long trip to the ocean where we had fun snorkeling. We ended off the day at a restaurant.

– By Dalton

June 14, 2018

We woke up for an 8:00 am breakfast of French cereals and pastries. By 9:15 we were on the bus to the House of Bele, where we learned a traditional Martiniquais folk dance. It was quite the exercise! After a quick shopping trip, we went out to a quiet park by the beach for a picnic. After that, we visited the Banana Museum where we saw (and tasted) many different kinds of bananas. A quick trip to the beach and Lagune du Angara for dinner, and our day was complete.

– By Ronnie

June 15, 2018
After an early start and long drive, we got to mount Pelée and saw the city and the ruins. On May 8, 1902, the volcano erupted and covered the city that was once considered “the Paris of the Caribbean “ and is now considered the Pompeii of the Caribbean. The one man who survived the eruption was in Barnum and Bailey circus as “the man who survived doomsday” because he was in an underground prison at the time of the eruption. It had been rebuilt many times due to hurricanes and the eruption, and the one place that the kept rebuilding was the church, where many people were during the eruption. After a short walk around the city, we drove partway up the mountain and had lunch in the shadow of the volcano. Then, we drove to Le Gorges de la Falaise and hiked through rainforest down to the gorge where a guide helped us parkour over the rocks and through the rushing river. Once we got to the end, we had to walk back, and we jumped off a small cliff into the water. It was a little scary, but really fun. It was an amazing day and was one of the coolest things we have all ever done.

-By Ellie

June 16, 2018
We woke up in the morning at no later than 6:15 am, and went to breakfast at 7:00. After breakfast we got on the bus and drove to the kayaking location. After we got off the boat and on to an island, we got in the kayaks and went through a narrow straight of mangrove trees. There were loads of interesting animals and some people even had crabs land on them! After the short trip through the mangroves we turned around and went around the island where our boat was moored, examining some more of the wildlife. When we were back on the mainland we ate some food and those that wanted to drank some coconut water. Then we went to look at a pottery shop filled with beautiful clay sculptures. After that we went to the sugarcane museum to learn a bit more about how sugar was made. After the museum we went swimming at the beach for a bit more than an hour. Then, we got on the bus again to go to dinner, and we had some nice food, and then we went back to the hotel and swam in the pool a bit, and then the day ended and we went to our rooms

– By Ramon

June 17, 2018

We all woke up and after breakfast we hiked up to a lighthouse where we had an amazing view. Once we finished taking pictures we hiked back down to the ruins of the Chateau Dubuc. We ate sandwiches we ordered the day before and then we explored the ruins. Once finished with that we made the plans for the school that we are going to tomorrow. Next we went back to the hotel to swim and prepare for the iron gauntlet cooking competition. Once it was time for the cooking competition we gathered our ingredient and went to our rooms where we would cook. Everyone made delicious appetizers and dessert. Those two dishes had to include plantains, bananas, and sugar. Once it was all over most of us went for one round of night swimming and then went to bed.

– By Niko