Fodor's Expert Review Musée de la Pagerie

A stone building that held the kitchen of the estate where Joséphine grew up houses the Musée de la Pagerie. It contains an assortment of memorabilia pertaining to her life and rather unfortunate loves, including a marriage certificate and a love letter written straight from the heart by Napoléon in 1796. The main house blew down in the hurricane of 1766, when she was three, and the family lived for years above the sugarcane factory—a hot, smelly, and fly-ridden existence. At 16 she was wed (an arranged marriage because her father was a gambling man in need of money) to Alexandre de Beauharnais. After he was assassinated during the Revolution, she married Napoléon and substantially improved her station in life. This museum is not a must-do in Martinique, but if you have some time and are in Trois-Îlets it offers an interesting bit of island history about a girl who made good.

Museum hours sometimes change, so be sure to call in advance.