Conquer and divide

While still in Les Saintes, Chris and Craig took all the kids to Fort Napoleon while Erica and I went grocery shopping.  Now keep in mind that in the french countries, they don't have one all encompassing store like we do stateside.  It was a tough morning visiting all three necessary stores to pick up our provisions - in the tiny town that was about 1/2 mile long!  And, they don't provide a bag for your purchased items, so one must be prepared.  We agreed to meet the dads and kids at 12:30 in the town square.  Well, wouldn't you know it, we gals had a little extra time on our hands.  And what do girls do best when left alone....they shop.  I must confess, I am not much of a shopper myself, in fact, I hate shopping.  But, I do really enjoy the occasional girlie shopping trip where it's more about time spent together and less time shopping.  Terre-de-Haut Island is one of two islands (remember there are 8) that are inhabited.  This particular island had some really cute shops with jewelry and clothing that I could actually picture myself wearing.  As opposed to the crazy and wild jumpsuits that were sold in Guadeloupe.  We made it into nearly all the shops in a very short period of time.  I think they call it 'power shopping'.  In our defense, there weren't that many shops to choose from.  We spent most of our time in a boutique called Maogany, where the owner had fun with us as we tried on lots of dresses (more Erica than me).

Meeting up with the rest of the family after a successful shopping day!  I bought a couple of dresses including one made using the Batik method (from Maogany) but without the traditional print or pattern.  These were made to look like the sea in soft blue, turquoise and seaglass.

Maggie does not get her shopping gene from me

The kids were less impressed with Fort Napoleon, mostly because everything was, you guessed it, in french!  They did have a few message boards with facts in english.  The view was great from the top and the walk was not too bad either.

View from Fort Napoleon

Middle of the fort where the museum now resides on the second floor.

Model of a slave ship

Ammo room or cannonball room.  There was one of these rooms approximately every 40 feet all around the fort.