Destination: Guadeloupe : On these Leeward isles, the culture has touch of Europe, but the experience is hotly tropical

One hot Caribbean afternoon in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, I walked by an elderly dressmaker’s modest open workshop, where some delicious madras-and-eyelet children’s clothes were displayed. I asked if she had a dress for me, and she rummaged in a bag and came out with a beautiful madras sun dress in pink and turquoise. I held it up against myself, and it looked fine. She said, “No, no, try it on,” so I did. I was satisfied, but she said, “No, no, the neckline is too wide; I can fix it right now without taking it apart,” and she did, and she was right. She wasn’t interested in a quick sale, but in the quality of her creation. That’s Guadeloupe.

One Sunday, also this spring, I was about to take a wrong turn in rather deserted countryside, passing through a tiny hamlet. A teen-age boy sitting on a porch gestured frantically to me that I was taking the wrong turn and that it was farther on. (He knew where tourists would want to go, and he was right.) His friend hopped on his motorbike and led me to the correct turn, smiled, waved and buzzed off. I hadn’t asked for help--they just gave it. That’s Guadeloupe.

The first thing that hits you at the airport is the heat--an overwhelming, penetrating heat that insists upon relaxation. The combination of heat and social harmony make Guadeloupe a very relaxed place. A long planter’s punch, or a short ti-punch (rum, sugar and pungently fresh lime juice, water on the side) and a dip in the sea or pool are essential to regain your equilibrium. By the seashore there is always a cooling breeze or a wind. Inland, during the day it is very hot, except when you go into the mountains of Basse-Terre. But inland you can cool off with the world’s best ice cream in intense tropical flavors: coconut, guava, lime, papaya.

Let me explain: Part of the French West Indies, about halfway between Venezuela and Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe is not a colony of France but an overseas departement whose residents are French citizens. It includes a scattering of tiny offshore dependencies, such as Les Saintes, but Guadeloupe is primarily Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre--two islands that are joined tenuously by a narrow channel, the Riviere Saleee.

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The easternmost of the two islands, Grande-Terre is flatter with small, bumpy, steep hills inland and gently rolling fields of sugar cane and green pastureland grazed by cows and goats, causing parts of it to resemble England. Grande-Terre’s heights are dotted with ruined stone windmills used to grind sugar cane. It has several picturesque towns and fishing ports, including Moule, which was settled in the 1600s and largely destroyed in 1929 by a hurricane. Guadeloupe’s largest commercial center, Pointe-a-Pitre (referred to by locals as PaP) is on a southwest bay. Beaches are everywhere, but the south shore, which caters to most of the tourists, is almost one continuous white sand beach.

Grande-Terre has some spectacular points reaching out into the sea, with dramatic coral cliffs and wind-eroded rock formations. Pointe des Cha^teaux, near where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean, offers a view evocative of France’s Brittany coast. Also here, on the eastern tip, is an array of white sandy beaches.

In contrast, the downwind island of Basse-Terre’s massive interior contains a mountainous national park, a rain forest including the almost mile-high active volcano La Soufriere (known locally as Mademoiselle or Miss). Its coasts have scattered villages, towns and beaches.

The town of Basse-Terre is the administrative capital of the French departement of Guadeloupe, including St.-Barthelemy, St. Martin, and the just-offshore, sleepy islands of Marie-Galante, Desirade and the craggy little Saintes, which can be visited by boat.

Basse-Terre town has never suffered major hurricane damage, so it has many old stone and wooden buildings and cobblestone streets. It has an aristocratic air and more elegance than PaP. It also has pleasant shops and the best and largest outdoor market.

The west coast of Basse-Terre is filled with unspoiled fishing villages and empty beaches. The sloping fields on the western flank are sprinkled with black volcanic boulders from Soufriere’s last eruption in 1976. The south of Basse-Terre is filled with undulating banana plantations, while the northeast is a rich red-earthed alluvial plain, nourished by many rivers, planted with cane, vanilla, cocoa and other crops.

The supply of pure mountain-water rivers and springs on Basse-Terre led it to be called Karukera (or beautiful waters) by the Arawaks, the local Native American population. So it is fitting that Columbus named the island for Guadalupe, the shrine in southern Spain, because the Spanish Guadalupe is derived from its Arabic name, Oued-el-Houb (or river of love) which sounds similar when pronounced. Delicious and cheap bottled water on Guadeloupe is from several Basse-Terre sources: Matouba, Dole, Capes.

The beaches--small and large, white, pink or black sand beside a warm turquoise sea--are ringed by reefs that break the waves and block out the sharks and barracuda. There are nice beaches all over the place, although the huge Grand Anse beach on Basse-Terre is certainly a standout for its size. In addition to all the usual land and water sports, Guadeloupe has nude beaches populated with bodies of all shapes and ages. (The French are comfortable with their bodies and aren’t ashamed to be old or fat). I explored the Parc National on Basse-Terre, a swampy, mangrove-lined, egret-filled wildlife preserve (much like the Florida Everglades), and hiked on marked mountain trails (or traces ) up to waterfalls with crystalline bathing pools, and hot-water springs. (One pool is hot on one side and cold on the other.)

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The town of PaP is sneered at by many guidebooks, but if you go to the far end of the central Place de la Victoire, away from the water’s edge, (where the guillotine worked 200 years ago), you will find cafes under immense hardwood trees, elegant old buildings, small shops and a flower market in the square where the cathedral and the law courts face one another. The iron-covered market, with its baskets, spices, food, cloth, sundries and so-called weed women (sorceresses who sell herbs), sits in a large pedestrian square.

In PaP there are several exquisite small museums in old mansions, including the St-John Perse museum, celebrating the work of the Nobel prize-winning writer from Guadeloupe. It is a beautiful, double veranda house set in a garden with a history that is typical of the ad hoc way things tend to happen in the islands. It is one of two prefab metal 19th-Century houses ordered from France by a Louisiana planter for his two daughters. The houses were shipwrecked near PaP and were auctioned off. (The non-identical twin structure is near Moule.)

I found many streets in Guadeloupe named after Victor Hugues, who arrived from Paris with a contingent of French soldiers and the guillotine, the only one in the Caribbean. There were also streets named after Victor Schoelcher, the French parliamentary deputy who finally pushed through the abolition law of 1848 that rid France and, accordingly, Guadeloupe, of slavery. They remind you that it was not always a paradise here, but a hell of slavery and a miasma of malaria.

The French Revolution abolished slavery, and Hugues guillotined the rich whites, armed the ex-slaves, divided property up and distributed power. Even after slavery was re-established by Napoleon for another 46 years, the fragmentation of property holding led to a more open society.

Slavery is not repressed or forgotten. There is the Schoelcher museum in a beautiful old pink house in PaP. It documents slavery and its abolition. In the tiny town of Petit Canal on Grande-Terre, a monument--the Eternal Flame to the Unknown Slave--was erected on the port in 1994. Carnival preparations start in February and on pre-Carnival weekends, instead of devil masks, boys and girls put on ferocious slave-master masks and stand at intersections with knotted-rope whips. In the middle of the road they crack their whips hard against the pavement, demanding money. If you hold out, an adult will call from the sidelines, “Let the people pass,” and the obedient children do.

The local people enjoy delicious and fresh French food enhanced by wonderful and refined French Creole and East Indian cuisines. The restaurants can be somewhat pricey--especially considering the franc’s strength against the dollar--but there are cheap little down-home restaurants offering excellent quality and value. I especially like Chez Clara on Basse-Terre. I think it has the best food anywhere on Guadeloupe. Another of my favorites is the excellent Creole restaurant, Le P’tit Jardin chez Lucile on Grande-Terre near the center of Moule.

When I tire of movement in Guadeloupe, I sit back and look closer at wherever I am. On a deserted beach, small crabs walk on their tippy-toes like ballerinas (and are delicious stuffed as crabe farci ); after a rain, tiny half-inch-long frogs come out.

In the evening a visitor may be surprised to see a large snail shell scuttling overland in a vertical position: There is a small crab inside. White egrets share the fields with cows (they seem to have a symbiotic relationship) and many herons and colored songbirds can be spotted. Or watch a procession of ants indefatigably carrying large pieces of green leaves back to their lair. At every turn, Guadeloupe is a rich experience.

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GUIDEBOOK

Getting Around Guadeloupe

Getting there: Since there is no nonstop service between LAX and Guadeloupe, fly, with at least one change of planes, to Point-a-Pitre on American. (Delta, United and TWA fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and connect with American Eagle into Guadeloupe.) Lowest advance-purchase, round-trip fares start at about $770.

Where to stay: Auberge le Grand Large, Route de la Plage, 97180 St.-Anne; bungalow for two about $115 a day or $535 per week, three rooms in big house at about $70 a day; from the U.S., telephone 011-590-88-20-06, fax 011-590-88-16-69.

La Flu^te Enchantee, 97126 Deshaies; bungalow for one with breakfast, about $100, for two with breakfast, about $140; tel. 011-590-28-41-71, fax 011-590-28-54-43.

La Toubana, 97180 St.-Anne; standard/deluxe units about $170-$220 for two people, including breakfast; singles about $140-$165; tel. 011-590-88-25-78, fax 011-590-88-38-90.

Le Meridien St.-Francois, 97118 St.-Francois; about $235-$550; tel. 011-590-88-51-00 fax 011-590-88-40-71.

Where to eat: There are scores of good restaurants. My choices:

Chez Clara, St.-Rose; best food anywhere on Guadeloupe, superbly subtle Creole cuisine. A la carte, $27-$55; local tel. 28-72-99.

Houelmont, Rue de la Republique, 34, Basse-Terre; Creole food, meals $25-$55; tel. 81-35-96.

La Canne-a-Sucre, Quai Lesseps, Point-a-Pitre; Creole food; meals $35 downstairs, $65 upstairs; tel. 82-10-19.

Le Chateau des Feuilles, Campeche, Anse Bertrand; specializing in grilled meats and fish, meals from $55; tel. 22-30-30.

Le P’tit Jardin chez Lucile, Cite Cadenet, Moule; Creole food meals from $25; tel. 23-51-63.

For more information: French Government Tourist Office, 9454 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 715, Beverly Hills 90212, (900) 990-0040 (calls cost 50 cents per minute; call before 2 p.m. Pacific time); fax (310) 276-2835.