Story of a thousand grocery stores

Arriving in a small town, and staying at an Airbnb, you don't want to be relying on eating out for every meal. Sure, it is less work, but costs more, and is not always possible, as sometimes the restaurant offerings are limited to pizzerias and rotisserie chicken, and not much else. Plus, where's the fun in renting your own place if you can't just get up in the morning, come downstairs and pour yourself a glass of juice, or make some toast without having to go through the whole process of getting ready to go out? Thus, the town must be explored - we need to eat. 

On previous trips here, we pretty much scoped out all the viable options, but it has been 2 years, and things change. We see that some new construction has cropped up: a 2-story something has appeared next to the chicken place, Kaza Manjé, but its insides are still vacant. The empty lot that was slowly being cleared out but one man, possibly directed by his wife, now has block wall, and the semblance of upstairs divisions, all while he calmly rakes a graded gravel slope, guided by a series of cords. Who knows where he will be in 2 more years? Another place looks like it grew a second storey, which is nothing new here in Guadeloupe - except this one has been build around a statue of Jesus on the cross, the effigy now encased by walls of cinder blocks, the view of it a little obstructed. 

We see that some houses also seem to have fallen into disrepair or disuse. A couple of homes on the main street have become more vines than house, they are so overgrown, the building underneath seemingly gasping for air. Others need a little TLC, a coat of paint, some repairs to the wood where mould and moss have taken over. On a similar theme, the central church is surrounded by wire fencing, its stained glass broken, louvres in the long windows hanging loose or fallen completely. A sign out front proclaims its derelict condition, and forbids anyone from entering until serious structural work is done. The date reads July 2022. 

Our first stop is just next door, at the local bakery. Like any self-respecting French town, Trois Rivieres has 5 bakeries. It helps that this one is so close, but since it opened up, it has become our favorite baguette in town, and so breakfast starts with chocolatey brioche and a couple of croissants. Add a glass of juice, a cup of coffee, and bananas, and we have breakfast. With that taken care of, we head out for groceries.

We walk east, up hill, to the biggest, newest store, the one we frequented the most on our last visit. It's closed. Not surprising, as it's still early, AND the day after Christmas - people are taking it easy, just waking up...We head back downhill, towards the west side of town, and the same place we happened to catch open last night. It's open, so we pull out the list and begin ticking things off. This store, however, is not as well-stocked, so some things are not available, like yogurt and granola, but we do find things for Christmas dinner, for sandwiches, eggs and cheese and potato chips. It's a start, but we'll have to try again later. 

Ham, emmental, butter and guava jam	Crabs on the Plage de Grande Anse
Walking the black sand beach	Don't sit directly under the cocotiers
Talking in the sun and sights of Les Saintes

Rather than laze around the house, we don our swimsuits and head to the local beach, Grand Anse, with its black sand and crazy waves. A sandy dog follows us as we walk the length of the beach, more likely following the ham sandwiches in our bag. We swim, we nap, we tan, we laugh at people tumbling in the surf, or running from the waves that sneak high up the beach. Even here, the tide seems higher, the waves strong, the beach a little more eroded. It was something I noticed last trip, but we are 2 days from a full moon, so I wonder if it might be affecting the tide somehow...

An afternoon later, we are back at the house, showering off the sand and salt, and heading back out. We walk the same route, first east, uphill, to find the same grocery store is still closed. We walk downhill, west, and the same grocery store is still open, but still stocked with the same food, so we keep walking. Into the middle of town we go, past the church and city hall with its tropical Christmas trees, past Kaza Manjé, past the hole-in-the-wall fruit and vegetable, which is also closed, though not surprisingly. We head to a third grocery store, which is even less stocked, if that is possible, but they have yogurt, and some attractive tomatoes and cucumbers, at least. We exit, and Mario states, rather sarcastically, "And now watch, the fruit and vegetable shop will be just opening its doors." I turn, and sure enough, the doors are open, the owner pouring onions from a bag into a display inside. We can't stop laughing all the way home. 

And it's not over yet - we have to go back out for groceries again tomorrow!