Vanessa Bolosier

Before they leave, I wanted Denise and Celestial to expeirence what a Caribbean Creole Christmas feel like so we organised a little party for them at my house. Chrsitmas food and music and my nephew was the heart of the party!! Farewell my Zaji Girls and see you again soon!!

Grilled meat! Yum! We took away some of that lamb, chicken and those ribs on the way to Basse Terre. It was so finger-licking good that D & C asked that we go again and this time have the full experience. Celest particularly liked the creole sauce!! Simple efficient grilled meat but it’s the marinade that makes the difference. It ended up being in the TOP 3 of the food they preferred during their trip!

I took Denise and Celest to the market in Pointe à Pitre. Great experience but I realised something. Many of the people on the market didn’t know how to explain what their products were in English. With rise of US tourists that will soon visit our French islands thanks to Norwegian Airways flying to Guadeloupe and Martinique, I feel it’s important we’re able to share our knowledge by embracing English. It will open so many opportunities! I’m so glad I was there to explain what was what and they were a hit at the market (they received a few marriage proposals! )

Stopped in Capesterre Belle Eau at the Kassaverie to grab these little goodies. I love them warm with a bowl of hot chocolate but coconut water should do too!

This is my favourite place to be in the world. Sitting on the beach, in Deshaies, watching a sunset. Full stop. Visit Guadeloupe.

Guadeloupe... A small ray of sunshine on my face let’s me know it’s time to arise. Sky is blue, small birds harmonise. I rise, I rise, i rise to cease the day. It’s a small country but close to paradise. Small Guadeloupe, I love you, my butterfly, I dream of you, my butterfly, Guadeloupe you’re my little wonder.

To wake up and have breakfast, feasting on freshly harvested fruit has no price. Carpe diem!

By now, if you follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or wherever you know i have a ting for coconuts and pineapple. I get animated when I see a roadside coconut truck. Move over Vita Coco or whatever pasteurised stuff you find in Tetra Pack bricks (I do fall back on these when in London, so throwing a bit of shade but I kinda drink these two), these right here are the REAL DEAL! Denise and Celest NEVER drank from or ate a real coconut! this was a first for them and they LOVED it!

I get high on the coconut jelly and could eat this EVERYDAY!! A lot of people say they hate coconuts because the only thing with it they had in their life was a Bounty... (side-eye). Get to know more about coconuts people, they are ABSOLUTELY GOOD for everything!!!

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Nope. Nothing glamourous to see here!. I mean, it’s great to climb a volcano. Hadn’t done it in ages and to be fair, when Denise and Celest askes, i thought I’d probably die on the way up. I mean la Grande Soufrière, is an active stratovolcano in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe. It is the highest mountain peak in the Southern Caribbean, and rises 1,467 m high. I love a challenge and LOVED it! I love breathing the extremely fresh air, the sulfur emissions and don’t get me started on the view. I would o it again anyday (i did lose a pair or trainers RIP my favourite pair of Nike). On the way down, after the effort comes comfort. Denise, Celest and I swam in the hot water source that comes straight the volcano! Great for the skin and so relaxing I didn’t want to come out!

I have extremely sensitive skin. Forget about your everyday facial products, your thermal products, your department store brands, your Clarins, Clinique, Creme de la mer or Kiehl’s. Unless it’s made in a kitchen or from pure natural ingredients, with no perfume, no preservatives etc, my skin doesn’t like it. I get rashes, spots and it’s not pretty! So when I discovered the brand Alizé Nature Caraïbe, it’s was a miracle. Everything is done in a small factory underneath the owners’ house. They use ingredients like honey (Guadeloupe honey has won plethora of awards and has been voted the best in France - very hard to get your hands on it), hibiscus, aloe vera, papaya, coconut etc. and after buying and trying the whole range, not only can i see a difference in my skin but I had no reaction! They also have a whole range of natural perfumes and oils that work great on natural Afro hair.

Whenever i go home, i stock up and if you feel this is something you’d like to try, they ship worldwide!

My two Texan ladies, Denise and Celestial, continue their immersion into Guadeloupe culture and discovering Gwo Ka was definitely a must. So I enlisted my childhood friend Yola who also was for many years the president of Otantika - an association that promoted the art form that Gwo Ka is in Paris. She welcomed us on the heights of Gosier and we learned the basic steps and rhythms of Gwo Ka alongside a drummer and dancer called Gregory (and with an amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean). We put on our maxi skirts and learned about Toumblak, Kalaja and the other 5 rhythms, did a bit of choreography (see video on Instagram) and I feel my guests really sensed the power of these steps and how history laden they are.

The whole experience fed into the visit we next did of the Chevalier de Saint George birthplace and helped us understand a bit more about how traditional music influenced his compositions. I think I’m getting better at dancing Gwo Ka and Denise and Celest also did a great job!

Lobster lunch. With it’s tradition of fishing going to Marie Galante is a pleasure for any seafood lovers. The freshness of the produce is second to none and in all honesty, not much needs to be done to the food for it to be excellent. Simple lunch: grilled lobster covered in sauce chien, rice, yam and kidney beans and some salad and a ti-punch on the side. Welcome to the French Caribbean!

Ooooh yes! Driving in Marie Galante there are plenty of delicious snacks to grab from the roadside. “Caca boeuf” is a made of “Sirop Batterie” a very rich, dark sugarcane syrup with delicious molasses aroma. It’s shaped like cow’s poo and that’s basically it’s name too. I know, not a description that will make you go out of your way to try it but I’ve snacking on this my entire childhood and to this day still can’t get enough. We also picked up some “sweetsop” and some bananas called “figue-pomme”, tiny and extremely sweet! Getting your 5 a day is never boring in the Caribbean.

Mr Daroso is the President of the Guadeloupe Coffee cooperative. For the last 5 years, he taught me everything I know about coffee cultivation and a lot about agriculture and farming. Whenever I go to Baillif and spend the day on the fields, I can’t go home without having been fed the freshest, most earthy meals and my arms full of fruits and vegetables straight from the trees. I have great mentors in many different fields and I can’t wait to be someone’s mentor one day!

“Land of my mother. So beautiful and untouched. My wealth lies there, in the ground and rising above surface.”

I can’t go to Guadeloupe without spending at a day there. Hello!

I’m never disappointed when I go to 1973 in Pointe à Pitre. It has now become a must-do whenever I come to Guadeloupe. So when Celestial and Denise, the two Texan women that asked me to show them everything I can about Guadeloupe in a week, landed, that was the first place I took them to.

Think old refurbished colonial house, in a seemingly dodgy back area of a town that goes dead at night. Think driving through a very dark street without lights, only seeing shadows of people that are either prostitutes, crackheads or drug dealers and wondering whether other drivers will think you’re also one of them when you get off your car. Also think, a completely different atmosphere when you step in. Vintage furniture, jazz, a creole boho vibe that totally defines the my identity.

Celestial and Denise loved it: the music, the food, the service, the cocktails, the history behind the place. The team is made of really cool people that not only work there but do amazing things outside of work: film making, music, art, fashion. You name it.

I will be back for sure...

Christine Kelly, born in Guadeloupe, is the first black woman to read the news in France (and by that I mean MAINLAND France, before the snarky frenchies start stating that technically the FWI are also France). Believe it or not, it only happened in 2000. It was big for me as black teenager looking at the news everyday without seeing someone that looked like me. I once expressed the desire to pursue a national career in journalism back when I was 13, but teachers told me that black girls don’t get to read the news as this is France and it just doesn’t happen. Christine Kelly changed that and young girls like me now have a role model to emulate. She opened the door for many more after that.

I always found her so beautiful, loved that she kept her Creole accent intact and made the news so exciting for me. In 2009, she was asked to join the Conseil Superieur de l’Audiovisuel, the highest authority in French TV regulation. She’s the youngest and also the first ever member to be from an overseas region.

I ran into her, as I went through the shelves of the bookshop which saw me grow up. It’s funny because that bookshop looked massive when I was little and now feels so small and empty. The cashiers are the same, they just have a few more wrinkles and when I saw Christine, sat at her table, signing books, with a big smile I instantly recognised, my heart dropped. I became that little girl again, calling my dad showing him there was a black woman reading the news on TV. I queued religiously to get a copy of her book signed. She saw me, stood up, smiled warmly and hugged me so naturally. She also called me “ma belle”. She might have done it to everybody, but I felt special. She asked me what I did for a living and I told her about my book. She said she’s proud and encouraged me to do more, write more. We took the picture, hugged again and I left.