Les Saintes is as famous for its bay as for its tourments d'amour, a unique traditional cake.
Ciellette was undoubtedly predestined for torments d'amour. When you bear the name Apollinaire, it's hardly surprising! Ciellette is 100% from Saintes, as she proudly asserts. And when asked if she's related to the great poet, she bursts out laughing and affirms that she isn't. In Les Saintes, Ciellette built her reputation on her tourments d'amour, these small, round, soft cakes filled with coconut that the women of Saintes sell at the arrivals and departures of the shuttles that connect them to the "mainland." "It was a cake made by our great-grandmothers to welcome their men who left early in the morning to row fish and returned late at night," says Ciellette. The recipe is passed down from mother to daughter, from generation to generation, and remains secret to others. No matter how much you insist, Ciellette will give it to you "in broad outline." This is undoubtedly why the tourment d'amour has remained a traditional cake in Les Saintes. "They sell it in Pointe-à-Pitre," says Ciellette, "but it's not the same as here." Obviously, it's not as good!
The recipe is passed down from mother to daughter, from generation to generation, and remains a secret to others.
If Ciellette's tourments d'amour are delicious, it's because she still makes them the old-fashioned way. There's no question of adding jam or packaged coconut powder. Ciellette makes a point of making her own with fresh coconut pulp or any other fruit (banana, guava, pineapple). Ciellette gets up two to three times a week at 2 a.m. to make her tourments. The day before, she boils the cinnamon and lemon zest in water and sugar, then adds the flesh of the 30 to 40 coconuts grated by her husband. Then she lets it cook for 3 to 4 hours over low heat. The next day, Ciellette makes her shortcrust pastry. No problem there. "You know how to make shortcrust pastry, don't you?" The secret, of course, lies in this famous coconut jam... Then we prepare a sponge cake, spread the jam on the shortcrust pastry and cover with the sponge cake. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes and that's it! "The secret," Ciellette finally says, is... to make them with love!"

The traditional Saintoise boats, which can still be admired during various popular regattas held throughout the year, are said to have been born from the expertise of European shipwrights who once settled in Les Saintes. This is undoubtedly why the people of Saint-Oise remain so attached to them and never miss an opportunity to prove aboard their traditional boats that they have lived up to their reputation as the best sailors in Guadeloupe.
Where does the distinctive shape of the old wooden boat that gave its name to all the boats of Guadeloupe come from? According to Alain Foy, a now-retired ship's carpenter, "it was a rowboat from the schooners that discovered Guadeloupe that is believed to be the origin of the Saintoise, the traditional Guadeloupean boat. Before the advent of engines, this hollow canoe, well-suited to the open sea, was maneuvered by oars and sails." Alain Foy, who built his first boat at the age of 17, apprenticed with George Cassin, another great carpenter from Les Saintes. "At the time, there were four or five frames." A characteristic of this boat, which has adapted to technical developments: a blend of different woods—red mahogany, northern wood, calabash, catalpa—a standing hull, and a keel weighted with rocks to sail upwind. "I would go and cut down pear trees on Grand Île with my father, barefoot in snowshoes," recalls Alain Foy. "Our pear tree is harder than the one in Guadeloupe, and it doesn't rot at all."

In the early 1960s, with the advent of the outboard motor, the traditional Saintes boat had to be adapted and improved to support increasingly powerful and, therefore, heavier engines. "When the boats were powered by engines, they would bang, which broke the frames and required a lot of repairs," explains Alain Foy. The shipwright then designed a plywood boat better suited to the sea, which spread to all the ports of Guadeloupe. The sails disappeared, the canoe became flatter because it was no longer necessary to sail upwind, and the hull became more buoyant and stable. Then, wood gradually gave way to composite materials.
At the Pineau shipyards, shipwrights have been passed down from father to son. Gaétan learned the trade from his father; his uncle and godfather also built traditional Saintes boats. "Until five years ago, everyone in Les Saintes was capable of building their own traditional canoe," he explains. "But today, young people want to go fast and not waste time." However, they remain attached to the island's boatbuilding industry, like David, a true Saintois, who acquired a boat from the Pineau shipyard. "The boat is a daily means of transportation for us. Here, we use a boat like in Guadeloupe we use our car. For me, it's important that it was built in Les Saintes."
Despite these developments, the traditional Saintoise has not completely disappeared. It is still proudly displayed at traditional sailing gatherings, such as the Tour de la Guadeloupe à la Voile (Tour of Guadeloupe Sailing), held in July. The Saintois, who have the second-largest fleet in the archipelago with six traditional canoes, are always ready to defend their reputation as the best sailors in Guadeloupe (there are even two clubs on the island). All the canoes entered in these regattas meet a very precise measurement (5.30 m long, 1.60 m wide, 70 cm deep). The boom, originally longer than the mast, must not exceed 6.50 m and the mast 7.25 m. Like its ancestors, the traditional Saintoise uses several woods: bamboo for the boom, northern wood for the keel, mahogany for the planking and floor, and pear wood for the frames and bow. The sails must be connected to the boom by vines (ravet wings). The shape and cut of the canoe are therefore less important than the five-man crew. "It's difficult to say that a canoe is good. It's a whole. You can have a good canoe with a good crew, but if you change the crew, then the canoe is no longer good," explains Harry Mariette, president of the Calingo traditional sailing association in Vieux-Fort; "because these canoes, designed for the open sea and weighted with rocks, require perfect navigational skill. Every maneuvering error can prove fatal, causing the canoe to capsize or fill with water."