Saint Marie (fictional island)

Deshaies on Guadeloupe, which is used for the town of Honoré in Death in Paradise.

Saint Marie is a fictional island in the Lesser Antilles which serves as the setting for the BBC crime drama television series Death in Paradise. The series is filmed on Guadeloupe, and Deshaies doubles for the fictional town of Honoré.

Saint Marie is described in Episode 3.3 as a "pretty island" that is "situated in the Eastern Caribbean Sea" and "one-tenth the size of its north-west neighbour Guadeloupe". This would make Saint Marie about 163 km2 (63 sq mi) in size. The location and name of the island suggest that it is based on the real-world island of Marie-Galante, which has a matching size and location, although the real-life Marie-Galante is legally part of Guadeloupe and not independent of it. Saint Marie's population is assumed to be around 10,000.[1] Another possible basis is Îlet Sainte Marie "The Îlet Sainte-Marie is an island located on the northeast coast of Martinique, right in front of the small town of Sainte-Marie, known in the North Atlantic region. Very popular with tourists, it is a geological curiosity of nature, as connected to the rest of the island by a tombolo."[2]

In the series, Saint Marie has a volcano, rainforest, sugar plantations, a fishing harbour, an airport, a university, a convent, approximately 100 public beaches, and a Crown Court. It also has its own newspaper, The Saint Marie Times. Honoré, the main town, has a leisure/commercial marina, market, bars, and restaurants as well as the police station. The island is a British Overseas Territory, but was handed over to the British from the French only in the 1970s, such that about 30 percent of its people are French citizens, with the French language still widely spoken. Its main economic ties are to Guadeloupe, the UK, and France, but it uses a "Dollar (unspecified)" as its unit of currency, as opposed to the Pound or the Euro. The island's main religions are Catholicism and Vodoo, with several Vodoo religious festivals.

References

  1. ↑ Graff, Vincent (8 January 2013). "Death in Paradise: Ben Miller on investigating the deadliest place on the planet". Radio Times. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  2. ↑ Équipe du Guide du Routard (2013-01-01). Le Guide du Routard - Martinique. Hachette Tourisme. ISBN 9782012453982.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.