Fort-de-France

Fort-de-France is a town on Martinique, an island in the warm Caribbean Sea.

It sits beside a big bay, with green hills all around.

Fort-de-France is the main town of Martinique, says the French encyclopedia Larousse. It lies on the north shore of the bay of Fort-de-France, and Martinique is an island of the Lesser Antilles, in the Caribbean.

France's statistics office, INSEE, gives 75,506 people for the town's commune on 1 January 2023. Its agglomeration, the town together with the built-up places around it, had 115,779 people.

Larousse ('Fort-de-France'): main town (chef-lieu) of Martinique, on the north shore of the bay of the same name; 79,055 inhabitants at the 2018 census; a modern, active town that gathers the island's service activities (administration, private services, wholesale and retail trade, a commercial port, holiday and cruise tourism). Universalis ('Fort-de-France', Christian Girault): the island's economic capital and the center of its cultural life, on a magnificent bay of the Caribbean Sea; the commune had 82,500 inhabitants in 2015, and with Le Lamentin, Schœlcher and Saint-Joseph it forms a community of about 160,000 people, 42 percent of the island. City Population (from INSEE): commune 99,844 (1982), 100,080 (1990), 94,049 (1999) at the censuses, then 89,794 (2007), 82,502 (2015) and 75,506 (1 January 2023), which City Population labels estimates (since 2006 France computes populations from census results of different years); agglomeration 115,779 (2023); Martinique 360,630 (2023).

Look at the wide bay with little sailboats!

The town climbs up the green hills, under big gray clouds.

G.Mannaerts took this wide photo on 22 September 2019. On the left is the calm bay, with a long pier and a few sailboats. A tall, pale tower stands near the shore, and buildings spread across the green hills. Palm trees line a park and an avenue, and gray clouds hang over the mountains.

Universalis calls the Place de la Savane the historic heart of the town. The Schœlcher library, from the 1880s, stands about half a kilometer from the town's point on Wikidata.

Commons: a wide panorama by G.Mannaerts (User:Triton, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0), dated 22 September 2019; Commons now files it under 'Panoramic views of Fort-de-France'. Seen in the 1,280-pixel copy: the bay with a long pier and sailboats at the left, a tall pale tower, buildings over green hills, a park and an avenue lined with palm trees, parked cars at the lower right, gray clouds over mountains. Universalis: the Place de la Savane is the town's historic heart; it gives the Schœlcher library a building year of 1885, while Larousse gives 1887 (restored in 1979) and Wikidata 1887. Larousse also names a departmental museum about the island's ancient Arawak and Carib cultures.

Far to the north of the town is a big volcano called Mount Pelée.

The north of the island has thick, wet forest. People fish over the coral near the coast.

Larousse says Martinique is made of volcanic mountains. Mount Pelée, 1,397 meters high, rises in the north, and Larousse says its activity is still a threat. The land is very rugged; the only large plain is that of Le Lamentin, in the center of the island.

The north has dense, humid forest, while the drier Caribbean coast and the south have dry forest. The volcanic soils are very fertile, and the coasts are good for sailing, small-scale fishing over coral shallows and beach holidays.

Larousse ('Martinique'): an island of the Lesser Antilles formed by a volcanic massif dominated in the north by Mount Pelée (1,397 m), 'whose activity remains threatening'; very rugged relief, the only notable plain that of Le Lamentin in the center; hills in the south; natural vegetation from dense humid forest in the north to dry forest on the Caribbean coast and in the south; very fertile soils from volcanic rock; coasts and nearby waters suited to navigation, small-scale fishing on coral shallows and beach tourism (especially the sunny beaches of the south). Wikidata: Mount Pelée (Q76309), 1,397 m, 25.97 km NNW of the town point.