Martinique News

Lucia 96 km ESE of FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique 147 km NNW of BRIDGETOWN, Barbados 782 km SE of SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico NST= 15, Nph= 20, Dmin=109.1 km, Rmss=1.43 sec, Gp=184, M-type=body wave magnitude , Version=7 Did you feel it? Report shaking and damage at your location.

How much farther the immense capital must have seemed to Marie-Josephe-Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, a teenager on a remote sugar plantation with an improbable future.

Of course, it is nothing more than the expiry date of a calendar. But the last day of the year will make everybody nostalgic and say it has been an "eventful year." There was no dearth of earth-shaking events in 2011.

Martinique boasts a sophisticated French-influenced culture enhanced by the flavours and rhythms of the non-Europeans who have lived here for centuries and who make up most of the population of this chic yet laidback island.