Death in Paradise

[Solent Richard]

I've noticed that both Arcadia and Azura are  scheduled to call into Point a Pitre on Guadeloupe in November 2021.

 

Death in Paradise - A new series of the popular Caribbean Island police series starts tomorrow (Thursday) evening at 9.00 pm on the BBC.

 

It just so happens that the series was the inspiration for my wife and I to take a cruise last  February which  called at Guadeloupe - the island on which the series is filmed and I thought it a good idea to write a review of how to go about visiting the 'Set' on my cruise blog.

 

Here's a link to my review of our day on the island and how we ended up in the Honoré  police station cells...

 

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2021/01/06/death-in-paradise/

 

It's a great day out and there's plenty of detail on the various options available. 

 

 

*****

 

[Eddie99]

We were fortunate to visit Guadeloupe almost exactly a year ago.  We’ve never watched Death in Paradise, so didn’t want to do anything with that theme.  We took an excursion across the island, through the fabulous rainforest and then had the adventure of a glass bottomed boat trip in the Cousteau marine conservation area.  Fabulous.  Recommend it thoroughly

 

We bought a bottle of Guadeloupe rum in the gift shop on the way back to the ship.  It was fabulous there and as we purchased we wondered if it would remain at the back of the cupboard - a tribute to ‘holiday remorse’ 🙂.  We had the fingers of pineapple from the bottle with good vanilla ice cream and a dash of the liquor poured over, for our Christmas Day dessert.  Lovely!  No remorse 🙂

[Gettingwarmer]

We have visited Guadeloupe on a cruise and travelled through the town where the bar and police station is but were not able to visit inside. We went the gardens just outside town where one of the murders took place. It is a beautiful place with lovely flowers and vistas. Humming birds and flamingoes. Very good. 

[Gettingwarmer]

Was great to see a bit of sun in the Caribbean tonight on tv. 

[Presto2]

Oh I would love to do that one day. One of our favourite programmes and watch it over and over, just for the feel good factor. Haven't see the new episode - our treat for tonight - though I read that they have changed the theme tune. Ahhhhhhhh

[terrierjohn]

Just now, Presto2 said:

Oh I would love to do that one day. One of our favourite programmes and watch it over and over, just for the feel good factor. Haven't see the new episode - our treat for tonight - though I read that they have changed the theme tune. Ahhhhhhhh

The tunes not changed, just updated and still sounds good.

[Presto2]

4 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

The tunes not changed, just updated and still sounds good.

 

Oh good - its going to be the highlight of our lockdown weekend --- well after doing the ASDA order. Oh the excitement 😉

[wowzz]

I have to say that I find Ralf Little's character more than annoying. I appreciate that the writers want to give him some quirks, but they seem to have overdone it in this case. 

[Presto2]

14 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I have to say that I find Ralf Little's character more than annoying. I appreciate that the writers want to give him some quirks, but they seem to have overdone it in this case. 

 

Looking back at the other people who played the detective (many times 😉 ) I have to say that I thinking acting wise, Ralf Little is the weakest actor they have had. Sorry to those who like him.

Then again we weren't keen initially on Ardal O'Hanon but he grew on us, so perhaps its we just need to get used to a new face on the team.

 

We have looked at a number of Caribbean cruises but as we are limited to the time of year we can go we don't seem to be able to find one that would go to Guadalupe. Oh well, one day 🙂

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Presto2 said:

we don't seem to be able to find one that would go to Guadalupe

I may be being unfair, but we went to Guadalupe with Arcadia, and did the DiP tour, and in all honesty we were not that impressed with the island overall. I certainly wouldn't make the island a determining factor in choosing a cruise. 

[mrsgoggins]

3 hours ago, wowzz said:

I have to say that I find Ralf Little's character more than annoying. I appreciate that the writers want to give him some quirks, but they seem to have overdone it in this case. 

 

+1

 

And agree with Presto2 that Ralf Little is the weakest lead.  I loved Ruby though and would like her back!

[Presto2]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

I may be being unfair, but we went to Guadalupe with Arcadia, and did the DiP tour, and in all honesty we were not that impressed with the island overall. I certainly wouldn't make the island a determining factor in choosing a cruise. 

 

I suppose it may not be but if we can get one that does what we want to see it is always a bonus. 

[terrierjohn]

16 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

 

I suppose it may not be but if we can get one that does what we want to see it is always a bonus. 

We did a private tour because P&O did not offer an accessible excursion, and it is quite a long journey for what is a bit underwhelming.

Not sure if its just the French not wanting to get exited about a British TV programme, but there was no effort to publicise any of the sites used in the filming.  However our Guadaloupe driver/guide turned out to be totally disillusioned with the EU, so we enjoyed a very interesting day out.

[Presto2]

Just now, terrierjohn said:

We did a private tour because P&O did not offer an accessible excursion, and it is quite a long journey for what is a bit underwhelming.

Not sure if its just the French not wanting to get exited about a British TV programme, but there was no effort to publicise any of the sites used in the filming.  However our Guadaloupe driver/guide turned out to be totally disillusioned with the EU, so we enjoyed a very interesting day out.

Our type of a guide 😉

I suppose part of me worries that we will go and it will not be as idyllic as it seems on the TV but looking at Solent Richard's blog it still does look beautiful.

 

[Ardennais]

Our guide in Guadeloupe kept referring to us all as English and when I said quietly to him in passing that we were Welsh he shrugged his shoulders and said “Pah, it eez the same thing”. We went really off him then!

[Jennizor]

We visited Guadeloupe a few years ago. At that time we hadn’t watched Death in Paradise so we were not interested in visiting where it was recorded. We had a tour round the island instead. Was not impressed really  apart from the beach bar we found that was really entertaining. We started watching it last night for the first time, it was OK - just light entertainment which was fine at the moment.

[Eddie99]

The island is very French.  I thought it had a nice French vibe.  Our glass bottomed boat adventure was populated 50/50 Brits/French.  They were all very nice & interacted with us, tolerating our poor, schooldays, French

 

The rain forest (or the part we saw, complete with spectacular waterfalls) was on the *other side of the island* to where we docked.  The island is butterfly-shaped, pretty much only unified by bridges and built structures.  I wonder if the two halves are very different?

[Presto2]

56 minutes ago, Jennizor said:

We visited Guadeloupe a few years ago. At that time we hadn’t watched Death in Paradise so we were not interested in visiting where it was recorded. We had a tour round the island instead. Was not impressed really  apart from the beach bar we found that was really entertaining. We started watching it last night for the first time, it was OK - just light entertainment which was fine at the moment.

You need to go back to the original series to 'get it'. Classic stuff.

[Presto2]

1 hour ago, Ardennais said:

Our guide in Guadeloupe kept referring to us all as English and when I said quietly to him in passing that we were Welsh he shrugged his shoulders and said “Pah, it eez the same thing”. We went really off him then!

Have to say, and please forgive me, I am not being racist, but have never felt welcome in France. Had some genuinely bad experiences so I couldn't cope with any more negativity coming our way. 

Just to add, we are not in any way racist but have had some bad experiences - probably met the wrong people and shop owners.

I am now beginning to sound like Richard on DIP 😉

[lincslady]

I have found the French outside Paris generally fairly friendly - it helps if you say 'bonjour' when entering the bakery etc., but the French in places like Tahiti and the West Indian islands seem sadly to be the most 'French', if you see what I mean, in terms of general unpleasantness , and dislike of les rosbifs in particular.

[Son of Anarchy]

1 hour ago, lincslady said:

 les rosbifs

Made me chuckle. Haven't heard that for a while.

[Ardennais]

The Bretons are always very welcoming when we mention that we’re from Wales.

[Presto2]

Well we just watched the new episode and really enjoyed it ---------- hoping that the cast grow as a team in the days of old. It doesn't yet have the same chemistry but early days

 

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, Presto2 said:

Have to say, and please forgive me, I am not being racist, but have never felt welcome in France. Had some genuinely bad experiences so I couldn't cope with any more negativity coming our way. 

Just to add, we are not in any way racist but have had some bad experiences - probably met the wrong people and shop owners.

I am now beginning to sound like Richard on DIP 😉

We hired a narrow boat on the Canal du Midi, and had a great time with the locals. 

We also spent a Christmas in Paris St Germaine dog sitting (!), and also had an enjoyable time.

I speak reasonable French, as my job at the time involved taking QA people from Tesco, JS etc to audit French production units, and again never had an issue, apart from trying to persuade our French hosts that we did not require a two hour French lunch.

Yes, you can be unlucky in who you meet, but my experience over the years has been totally different to yours.

Without being judgemental,  how is your French, because, rightly or wrongly, the French don't take well to those who don't speak a smattering of French.

 

[Ardennais]

Fair enough. Well done the French for protecting their own language!