So we got up early to go and visit the “sight” of ‘Death in Paradise’ , Annette has now told me, her only reason for going (comming) was that she wanted to keep me happy. Well there is no backing away from it – she really loves me. Well as they both meant the same thing and we had already been round three Yankee Islands with extortionate prices it would be nice to visit somewhere that wanted “Euros” instead of US Dollars.
We spent the morning getting the UK passport back, all stamped up and we were ready to go. We still ended up with about an hour to kill so we wandered around the ship before we could get onto the coach and do the trip. Annette wasn’t too keen on this but quickly got used to the idea of the tour and it was a lot cooler on the coach. Of course we ended up with a substitute tour guide who couldn’t get the coach speakers working, this was really helped by some idiot shouting out every 3 or 4 minutes ; “we still cannot hear you..” which drove here to walking to the back of the coach and giving a repeat performance.
We were having a good trip really as we were told about all the sugar cane crops and we got to park up and look down on the “hotel” on the beach below where there had been a murder mystery to sort out. We could both remember this as it was one of the earliest episodes and had a good look, but of course, we weren’t allowed to visit the damn place. So we had a couple of minutes wandering around before we all got back on the coach to head further north on the island.
Just a quick bit of information for those who don’t know Guadalupe it is pretty much two large islands as below.
Now for some reason we were landed down the southern bit and needed transporting to the locations where they did all the filming, which was in the North – Gande Terre, more or less. So after this major road trip we were taken to the place where the Police Station was and the Bar, way up north.
Of course this led to more trouble as it was about 32 degrees and Annette was melting. I waited for Annette to catch up as the guide went on about where everything was and set off again. We ended up trailing after the crowds towards the police station and I saw a small group turn off and go towards some bar. When I looked at the wall there was a “Police” sign and I thought that must have been it as I told Annette who was not happy about moving any further but, worked out it was amodern building with all the police you could throw a stick at. Meanwhile I could see the rest of our crew up the hill entering the “Death In..” fuzz yard so I told Annette but, she was too done in to go up to see for her self and decided to await me until I returned.
I continued up the hill and could see it was exactly the location shown on TV and I was quite happy. I entered the cop shop and I could see most of the set up waiting for everyone to stop pretending to be a local dectective. I had to admit seeing a couple of old blokes and ‘Mother Thersas’ pretending to be youg locals (without any makeup) was quite funny. I did notice there was no ‘white board’ to put all the evidence on, cannot say as I was surprised after all the stuff about nicking stuff. So I wento into the cells at the back, few scenes were shot there, and noticed yet more likely looking villans. On the way out there was a small souvenier shop but priced in ‘euros’ so I left and went down to Annette.
I naturally told her the good news but, she was done in and not into the mood for a climb up. By now most of the crowd had decided to get a drink in ‘the bar’ from the show to help celebrate having seen most of the tour in a short hop. Surprise, surprise – the bar was split into two parts by the road than ran through the midle making it a little deadly to refil the drinks. We found some empty seats and moved a couple of dozen empty bottles ready for some filled up thirst quenchers. I went through and got a couple of likely loking beers and returned to find Annette sitting with a couple of blokes from the ship. The beer was nice but, a tadge expensive, as euros go, but we had a good chat and a booze up before we had to get back to the coach for the last trip – the place where the ‘boss’ has his little bungalow kip hut.
Feeling a litle more alive now Annette decided to go up to see the ‘Fuz shop’ but, not until we’d called into the lavatory on the way – gotta get rid of all that beer. As we got to the police I could see it was all locked up and we got a freindly “sorry, we’re closed” from the local cleaner woman. That just left us with a walk back to the coach and we were off on the last bit “Death In Paradise” tour – the detectives pad. However, before we even got there we were informed that after the first showing on TV his bungalow was pretty much a “low” as all the ‘bung’ got taken away by tourists as souveniers of the grand tour. So we had a walk round were the place was all neatly marked out with a notice saying it would only be built for filming and it looked even smaller. All around it were small bars (of course they never make the show) and you could see the jetty over to the left where they filmed most of the chases etc.
Annette was getting worn out again and I was ready for a drink or two so we went into a local bar and settled down with a couple of local beers. We had found some shade and I recon we were doing alright as we got joined by another couple who had just finished the tour. We had apleasant chat and decided it was time to get back to the coach. So we made our way up the hill to where the coach was and struggled on board getting all comfy for the ride back to the ferry. Annette was happy that I had seen all I wanted too and neveer wanted to hear any more “Death in Paradise” adventures from me.
All in all I enjoyed it.