La Darse

Local Product - Pointe-à-Pitre

The harbor at Pointe-à-Pitre was welcoming merchant ships as far back as the 18th century. Its exceptional location and superb mooring were a decisive factor in the city’s early expansion. Every four years, the famous transatlantic solo sailing race, known as “La Route du Rhum“, finishes here. La Darse (meaning dock or port) is also the site of the daily fish market, where, starting at dawn, boats arrive from the surrounding islands bringing snappers, seabream, jobfish, bigeye scad, and various crayfish, all to be sold directly on the quay. Nearby is the fruit and vegetable market, where the trucks are swiftly unloaded and the cheerful market ladies offer an impressive variety of fruit and vegetables such as guavas, passion fruit, pineapples, mangoes, bananas, various types of figs, sweet potatoes, taro, malangas, yams, turban squash, avocadoes, bread fruit, papayas and christophines, etc., not to mention the ubiquitous peppers.