Martinique is France: A Travel Guide to the French Caribbean

I have a confession to make.

I've spent years taking women to France...to Provence, Normandy, to Avignon and beyond. I know France the way you know a place you keep returning to year after year. And it keeps giving me something new every time I visit.

And somehow I didn't even think about another huge part of France.

Martinique is an overseas region of France. Not French-influenced or inspired by France. France. The currency is the euro, the language is French (which I actually did know). It's a tiny island that sits in the Caribbean, about 4,300 miles from mainland France, and by every measure it is as French as Paris...just with different light, a different history, and a different pace entirely.

I don't know why it took me this long to pay attention, but here we are.

I'm going to Martinique in May. And I'm not going alone.

About eleven years ago I was in culinary school when I met Frederique (Freddie). We became friends the way women in their 30s who are surrounded by humans in their very early 20s do (that is to say bonding over real life experiences, the naiveté of youth, etc).

Freddie is from Martinique and a few years ago founded Maison Carib, a travel company built around the belief that exploring Martinique should never come at the expense of people who live there. Maison Carib connects travelers with locally owned businesses, locally run experiences, and the kind of beneath-the-surface Martinique that most visitors never find. Her philosophy is simple and radical at the same time: be a traveler, not a tourist. Spend your money in the communities you visit. Adapt to local life rather than expecting it to adapt to you.

If that sounds familiar, it's because it's exactly the same ideals I built Maison d'Amies around.

For years, Freddie has been telling me to come to Martinique (...it's seriously been years). Ever time it would come up I'd always say yes, of course, absolutely, soon.

Soon finally has a date on it.

When we started talking about a collab retreat, it felt less like a business decision and more like something that was always going to happen. Two women, two companies, one island...and a shared belief that travel should leave a place better than you found it.

What I don't know yet, and why that excites me.

Here's my honest truth: I know mainland France. I know the markets and the rhythm and the best place to have that long lunch. I know how which village we need to visit and which restaurant is going to blow your socks off, regardless of if we're in Provence, Normandy, or the Dordogne.

Martinique is different. I know enough to know it's extraordinary, that the rhum is delicious, that the food is rooted deeply in local culture, and that the beaches have a reputation that precedes them. I know the history is layered and complex and deserves to be approached with curiosity and care.

What I don't know yet is everything else. And I cannot wait to learn it from Freddie, from the people she's built relationships with over years, and from the island itself.

That's the thing about going with someone who's from there, you don't just get a destination. You get the real thing.

What the retreat will look like.

In May 2027, Maison d'Amies and Maison Carib are taking a small group of women to Martinique for a week of slow travel, the French Caribbean way.

Rhum, yes. Beaches, obviously. But also the local chefs and hidden corners that Freddie knows and is going to share with us. The week will also be filled with the conversations you have when you're not rushing and the meals that taste like where they came from. It will be the Maison d'Amies pace you've come to know and love, the pace that slows everything down so you can actually rest.

This is France, just a different part of it. And I suspect it's going to change the way I think about France moving forward.

The interest list is now open. Travel to Martinique with us.

We're still in the planning phase, but I'm heading to Martinique at the end of April to scout with Freddie and let the island show us what it wants our trip to be. But if this sounds like your kind of week, I'd love for you to get on the list before we officially open it up.

Join the Martinique interest list here.

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Maison Carib was founded by Frederique Stephanie and is a Black woman-owned travel company based in Martinique. Learn more @maisoncarib on Instagram.