The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
The ‘secret’ Caribbean island – as seen on TV
Giant turtles, waterfalls and French-influenced food – there’s more to Guadeloupe than smallscreen murder mysteries, says actor Ralf Little
Our location manager built a bonfire on the beach and we sat there as the sun went down
I’m lucky enough to spend six months of the year in Guadeloupe, filming Death in Paradise – and I love every minute. When my missus comes to visit, she’s like a cruise ship manager, organising itineraries that start at 6am on my day off. I’m usually less than enthusiastic when we set off – but I’m always glad retrospectively that we have gone off to explore. It’s an extraordinary place, with such incredible, rustic charm.
Grande-Terre is the more touristy island where the wealth is – there are casinos, boutiques and a golf course (which I got unfathomably excited about looking it up on Google Maps when I learnt I’d got the job and would be spending half the year living there. I don’t even play golf). Basse Terre, where we live and work, has a completely different feeling. It is essentially a giant volcano, La Grande Soufrière, with a road around it where all the settlements are. You get the most incredible bright blue skies with the clouds lingering on the mountain top, and it is so wild and verdant.
We film in and live near Deshaies, an astonishingly charming, beautifully preserved village. How many places do you encounter that are genuinely just one street long? Not many, but Deshaies is one of them. You drive down a steep hill and in front of you is the stunning harbour – the one that you see regularly on the show – and a road with a boulangerie, restaurants, shops and three scuba diving schools (three dive centres and one bakery tells you everything you need to know). You climb up the hill on the other side and you’re out of town again.
At the risk of making you jealous, I live in a beautiful villa perched on a clifftop overlooking a long, yellow-sand beach called Grand Anse – my favourite beach, with big, forceful waves. I specify yellow because, as a volcanic island, every beach has slightly different coloured sand, depending on the volcanic content. Half an hour down the road from there is Plage de Malendure, where the sand is black, and where Jacques Cousteau himself pioneered scuba. Where better to go diving than the place where it was invented?
Not that you need to go scuba diving to see the most incredible marine life. Just paddle out 150ft or so and there they are, giant turtles grazing on the ocean floor, just hanging out. It’s almost ethereal to watch them.
Plage de Malendure is the place to go on the island for music, beer and the best poulet boucané – they smoke the chicken over sugarcane, so it has this sweet, smoky flavour, and such crispy skin. The food in Guadeloupe is not what you might expect. If you want rice and peas, plantain and saltfish and ackee, you are in the wrong place.
The French influence means Guadeloupeans are very good at bread, and they eat a lot of what they call bokit,a giant flat bap, fried in sunflower oil, with a range of fillings. It is essentially a sandwich, but it’s no more “just a sandwich” than a hoagie or a Philly cheesesteak is a sandwich. Poulet colombo is another delicious dish, chicken in a fragrant yellow sauce made with coconut milk and spices.
And, of course, there’s the seafood. In Deshaies, there are a couple of guys with a pick-up truck who sit on the back with a sign saying “Fresh Tuna”. And they’re not messing about – they’ll have a whole tuna, pulled out of the sea an hour ago, and they get a machete, chop a chunk off and hand it to you. I saw someone drive past me on a scooter with an enormous whole tuna at his feet. It’s the freshest you will ever eat.
There are also waterfalls galore, including Cascade aux Ecrevisses, socalled because of the freshwater shrimps prancing around in it, and the Lézarde waterfall, where there is a micro brewery producing the local craft beer – but my favourite is Les Chutes du Carbet.
The indigenous Taíno people had settlements here, and they were one of the first places Columbus landed. I’m not a walker, but I do like a good clamber, so I loved scrambling over the rocks there, thinking that Columbus’s men did the very same thing to get to those waterfalls.
If you want somewhere serene and empty, head for Plage de Tillet near the
hotel Fort Royal (the show’s hub, where a lot of the cast and crew stay). The big walk down a steep hill is well worth it. One Sunday, our location manager built a bonfire on the beach, and we sat there as the sun went down swapping stories. It was weirdly hippy-ish and, if someone else described it to me, I’d say it sounded terrible – but it really was amazing.
Sometimes you just want to splash out and have a lovely weekend and, while you won’t find many fancy resorts in Guadeloupe, there is a beautiful hotel called La Toubana. I have a habit of taking in stray dogs and I rescued a puppy I called Suzy – she was basically living in a bin, all skin and bones, and 10 days later, there she was sunbathing in a five-star resort.
Guadeloupe really isn’t about those places, though. The cast and crew, which includes a lot of Guadeloupeans, drink at Buddy’s Beach Bar, a local legend who knows everything and everyone and helps us with locations for Death in Paradise. You have to pace yourself when it comes to the rum there, and everywhere else. The local drink is ti’ punch, named after the creole word for “small” – because it isn’t mixed with anything. You’re given lime juice, sugar and a big bottle of rum and you make it yourself. It’s supposed to be a sipper, but you get in trouble with it and learn your lesson very quickly.
Death in Paradise fans really do make a beeline for the locations on the show and I always wonder what they make of it. It’s unspoilt, authentic Caribbean, not five-star luxury, and you have to understand that before you go there. Commit to the culture and, if you do that, travelling in Guadeloupe is the most rewarding experience.
As told to Lara Kilner
Death in Paradise series 11 is currently airing on BBC One, Fridays at 9pm
Arrivals in Guadeloupe over the age of 11 must undertake a Covid test 72 hours or less before departure and declare themselves symptom-free. For details, see gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice