t's morning and we're hungry. Stepping out into the streets of Gosier, we almost swoon from the smell of freshly made breads. we follow our noses. We spot several Guadeloupeans coming down the street with baguette in hand - we must be getting close. Just the thought of a fresh, flaky croissant is making us mad. We reach the pâtisserie, order our café au laits and croissants. We take this marvelous French creation in our hands and take ravenous bites. Heaven. And this is only the beginning. Guadeloupe is a culinary paradise in the tropics. There are more restaurants here than you can imagine - it seems there is one on every block. So if you love French food with a Créole twist, you'll love Guadeloupe.

Guadeloupe is très Français, a full-fledged Région of France. Paris acts as the cultural and political capital of the island (the Guadeloupe Région also includes St. Barts and St. Martin, though not Martinique). Just off the coast of Guadeloupe is Marie-Galante and the archipelago known as the Iles des Saints - smaller islands, and just as French. Guadeloupe itself is actually two similarly sized islands, Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre, separated by a seawater channel, the Rivière Salée. These island monikers translate literally as "Big Land" and "Low Land," which are really misnomers as Basse-Terre is the mountainous, volcanic part of the island and Grande-Terre is fairly flat. There are several theories as to why this is so. The most likely explanation is that they are named for the wind velocity that at one time powered sugar mills - the flatter island having stronger winds, thus being named Grande-Terre.

Although Martinique is somewhat more sophisticated and affluent, Guadeloupe is highly developed, with more than 5,000 hotel rooms, and does a booming business with the French who flock to the island on the 747s that wing in daily. Often you will feel more as if you're in some part of continental France than in the Caribbean, especially in Pointe-à-Pitre, the island's commercial hub (the capital is the smaller city of Basse-Terre). There are high-rise apartment buildings, shopping centers, huge supermarkets, billboards galore, and freeways. But there are wonderful Caribbean elements too - like colorful open-air markets and quaint West Indian–style houses - and the contrast between the modern and the traditional is often striking. When you venture into the countryside, the balance tips more toward the Caribbean flavor, yet you have the great French road system to help you see the sights. The smaller out islands are more rural still.

While a few Americans and English-Canadians come here, the overwhelming majority of visitors to Guadeloupe are French. Almost all of them come on package tours. If you are a Francophile, you'll love it. But you should note that English is not spoken widely. As a matter of fact, it's rarely spoken except at a few major resorts. If you don't speak French, you will have a difficult time understanding and communicating - more so than in Paris, really. But if you do speak French, you will have a ball.