The village of Bourg des Saintes on Terre-de-Haut is the living heart of Les Saintes — a single small settlement with a waterfront lined with fishing boats, a church, a handful of restaurants and bakeries, and streets just wide enough for pedestrians and scooters. There are almost no cars; the island's scooter-and-foot culture gives the place a tranquillity unusual for a French Caribbean destination.
The waterfront is where everything happens: ferries dock, fishermen unload the day's catch, and visitors sit at tables under umbrellas watching the bay. The narrow streets behind the waterfront wind past wooden houses painted in pale blues and yellows, with occasional views down to the water. The church square, with its simple white church and the hill rising above it toward Fort Napoléon, makes a natural gathering point at the end of an afternoon.