Place de la Victoire Bars

Place de la Victoire is the central square of Pointe-à-Pitre, shaded by old plane trees and flanked by colonial-era buildings painted in faded yellows and greens. The cafes and bars around its edges are where the city slows down in the late afternoon: ti' punch before dinner, cold Corsaire beer, and a view of the square's steady foot traffic.

The square is not glamorous — Pointe-à-Pitre is a working port city, not a resort town — but it has an authentic urban energy that the beach towns on the south coast lack. The bars here are simple places: plastic chairs, rum poured generously, conversation in Creole. It is the best place in Grande-Terre to drink alongside people who live here rather than visit.

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A story
Place de la Victoire takes its name from a 1794 battle in which the abolitionist Victor Hugues defeated the British. The plane trees lining the square were reportedly planted to commemorate that victory — though that story may be more legend than fact, it has been repeated often enough to become part of the place's character.

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