Destination: Caribbean : Isle de France : Fine food and joie de vivre sum up the spirit on the French island of Martinique

La plage, as they say in French, is a hotbed of topless activity here on Martinique. The children, the mamans, even the young mesdemoiselles walking the Caribbean beach hawking bikinis, are bare-chested and defiant of the noon sun.

We, however, are sealed in sun block and T-shirts, searching for a patch of blessed shade along the sandy crescent known as Grande Anse des Salines. So American of us.

Already this morning, my husband, Joe, and I have had Galoise cigarette smoke blown in our faces and have driven with the enemy on the autoroute, where speeding is a national obsession. We have been greeted with a sing-song bonjour at breakfast and force-fed the opinion of an arrogant Frenchman that English is a language for plebians.

Yet it’s this saucy French disposition that makes Martinique so appealing. And it’s the reason for our visit last July. We wanted a vacation with spice, a week to eat Creole, drink aperitifs in seaside cafes, practice our French on accommodating waiters and wear as little clothing as possible.

Martinique is a department of the French Republic and belongs to the European Community. Since it was settled by the French in the 1600s, its spirit has been rooted in Paris, its soul in the people of the Caribbean. The majority of the islanders are mulattoes and black descendants of slaves from Africa; there is also a small group of bekes, whites born on the island.

There is harmony between the races here, and the treatment of Americans is far better than on any other Caribbean island we have visited. There were warm greetings for us from the bank teller changing dollars to francs as well as from the mechanic changing a flat tire. Service was mostly swift and competent, not much of that “Caribbean time” attitude that frustrates so many tourists.

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A vacation here, however, is not necessarily easy for Americans. Few islanders speak English, and because so many of the visitors come from Europe, the tone of the restaurants and hotels can be intimidating. Getting around isn’t effortless either. Martinique can be a confusing maze, where broken French won’t help much in getting directions. Almost all of the tiny rental cars come with standard stick shifts, and while there is a sophisticated but limited system of highways, most of the roads are windy and mountainous, pitch-black at night and not marked particularly well.

Like most other destinations in the Caribbean, Martinique has its share of all-inclusive resorts, the most popular being the Club Med at Buccaneer’s Creek and the Hotel Bakoua in Pointe du Bout, a ferry ride across the water from the (not-so) grand capital city, Fort-de-France. Here the beaches are on the hotel property, and meals can be purchased as part of a package deal.

We chose to do everything a la carte, booking into an out-of-the-way hillside villa, Fregate Bleue Inn, just outside Le Francois on the east coast. Run by Charles and Yveline De Lucy, a couple whose families go back to the 17th century, the inn was our base for sightseeing trips and beach outings.

It was also a charming place to come home to at day’s end: Our room, one of seven, had cathedral ceilings, an antique armoire and bed, a small kitchen, an Oriental rug, air-conditioning and a private terrace looking out (through trees) to the Atlantic. We fell asleep to the loud murmur of Caribbean night sounds and arose each morning to the smell of flowers and a cafe au lait out on an awning-covered breakfast balcony. And we were so taken with the De Lucy’s Labrador retriever, which had as animated a personality as they did, that we came home and bought one ourselves, giving it the same name, Kookii.

Yveline De Lucy knows her business well: She gave us more than suggestions on where to see the Martinique ballet or what beach had the best snorkeling. One night she invited us to dine in the family home, which makes up the bottom floor of the Fregate Bleue. Another day she and her husband took us out on their boat. About a mile or so out at sea we met up with their friend, a local tour operator, and his boat full of day-trippers. We jumped onto a sand dune in the turquoise Atlantic and were served rum in paper cups and peppery chicken wings out of a bucket.

Which was only one of the tasty meals we ate in Martinique, an island where some chefs have been anointed “seasoned sorcerers.” Our first night we went to the Cabana Plage in nearby Le Vauclin and feasted on grilled snapper and green salad. On an outing the next day to St. Anne, we lunched on fish Creole at Les Filets Bleus. One dinner was at the sensual and elegant La Plantation in Le Lemantin, where Joe had crayfish wrapped in banana leaves and I ordered casserole of conch.

In Le Diamant there was Creole swordfish at Snack 82, a small cafe that sits right on the beach, and there were lunches of baguettes and cheese that we bought at local boulangeries. (A word of advice: Always keep bottled water in the car. The heat is formidable.) The most sensational meals (we kept going back) were at a dingy roadside restaurant near the Fregate Bleue called Chez Leger. Here grilled quail and grilled Caribbean lobsters doused in green onion Creole sauce were exquisite and, happily, cheap. Chez Leger is a nitty-gritty local hangout, but tourists can feel comfortable here among the families dining out.

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Of course, there was more to do than eat, and each day we put on our sun hats and set out with our maps. On these drives we passed fields of bananas and pineapples, rain forests blanketed with breadfruit trees, cows grazing in fields and makeshift stands selling fresh mangoes and watermelons. One day we visited Les Trois-Ilets, made famous by Marie-Joseph Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, better known as Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon. Her estate is now a national museum.

Other places to seek out are Plantation Leyritz near Basse-Pointe, snuggled in the island’s sugar cane country, (pretty restaurant, mediocre food) and Habitation Clement near Le Francois (for buying rum).

We spent hours wandering the small villages of Martinique, most of them built near the water, with red-tile roofs (Martinique was unscathed by last fall’s deadly Caribbean hurricanes).

But for sophisticated travelers these hamlets can be disappointing. Shopping is at small storefronts with out-of-date clothing, and souvenirs are garden-variety. The most famous village in Martinique is St.-Pierre, once known as Little Paris of the Antilles. It was wiped out by a volcano in 1902, which killed all 30,000 inhabitants. Now there are ruins to tour.

Finding the beach on Martinique can be complicated. On the northeast many beaches are not open for swimming because of the rough seas. But in the south and southeast, where the Caribbean Sea has gentler tides, a good road map and a sharp eye lead to the sand. There is swimming and sunbathing in Le Diamant, Les Anses-d’Arlet, Sainte-Anne and Grande Anse des Salines; more bathing suit tops are off than on.

The biggest disappointment on the island is the capital. Though Fort-de-France is said to be a combination of New Orleans and Nice, we found the city crowded, dirty and faded. On days when cruise ships are in port, thousands of passengers clog the main shopping streets, Rue Victor-Hugo and Rue Schoelcher. While it’s true that there are bargains to be had on crystal, perfume and fashions, the majority of the merchandise seemed dated and dull. An afternoon in the city to see its statues and parks is more than enough.

You may also want to steer clear of the island’s cockfights, pit vipers and poisonous manchineel trees. But a tourist would have to search hard to come across any of those. What we mostly ran into were big Creole smiles and gentle au revoirs.

As for the spice that we were after, it still tingles in our minds.

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GUIDEBOOK: Moored in Martinique

Getting there: There are no nonstop flights from LAX to Martinique. American and Delta offer flights involving a change of planes, routing passengers through San Juan, Puerto Rico. Lowest high-season fare is $844, plus taxes. Package deals that include air fare, hotels and other features are the best way to keep down the relatively high cost of flying to the Caribbean.

Getting around: Major rental firms have cars at the airport. Ferries run early morning to midnight between Fort-de-France and Pointe du Bout, where most tourist hotels and casinos are located.

Entry requirements: A passport is best. If not available, customs will accept a birth certificate with a raised seal plus a photo-ID driver’s license.

Where to stay: Fregate Bleue Inn (telephone [800] 633-7411 or 011-596-54-54-66; rates $200-$225 a night per double, December through April, including breakfast, tax and service) a small hillside inn in Le Francois, has seven rooms decorated with antiques and equipped with small kitchens; each room also has a private terrace overlooking the Atlantic. Hotel Bakoua, a modern Sofitel resort at Pointe du Bout (tel. [800] 221-4542 or 011-596-66-02-02, fax 011-596-66-00-41; high-season brochure rates between $294-$435 per double, including breakfast, tax, service) has 139 rooms, each with patio or balcony. Meridien Trois-Ilets (tel. [800] 543-4300 or 011-596-66-06-00, fax 011-596-66-00-74; about $272 per double, tax and service included) has 295 rooms, many with water views, a casino, facilities for water sports, a disco and Creole cooking at La Case Creole. Buccaneer’s Creek Club Med (tel. [800] CLUB MED; weekly rates from Jan. 6 to March 23 are $1,755 per person, including air fare from Los Angeles, all meals and activities) has a beach and garden setting. For more information: Martinique Tourism Promotion Board, tel. (800) 391-4909 (call before 2 p.m. PST). French Government Tourist Office, 9454 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 715, Beverly Hills 90212, (900) 990-0040 (calls cost 95 cents per minute; call before 2 p.m. PST); fax (310) 276-2835.

--M.R.