The Saintes are as famous for their bay as for their torments of love, a traditional cake unique of its kind.
Ciellette was undoubtedly predestined to the torments of love. When one bears the name of Appolinaire, one can not be surprised! Ciellette is 100% saintoise as she says loud and clear. And when asked if she is related to the great poet, she laughs and says no. At Les Saintes, Ciellette has built its reputation on its torments of love, these small round and soft cakes stuffed with coconut that the Saintoises sell to the arrivals and departures of the shuttles that connect them to the "continent". "It was a cake made by our great grandmothers to welcome their men who left early in the morning to rowing and returning late at night," said Ciellette. The recipe is passed from mother to daughter, from generation to generation, and remains secret for others. You may insist, Ciellette will give you "in broad outline". It is undoubtedly for this reason that the torment of love remained a traditional cake of the Saintes. "It sells in Pointe-à-Pitre, says Ciellette, but it's not the same as here>. Obviously, it is less good!
The recipe is passed from mother to daughter, from generation to generation, and remains secret for others.
If Giellette's torments of love are delicious, she is still making them old-fashioned. There is no question of putting jam or coconut powder in a bag. Giellette makes a point of making her own preparation with fresh coconut pulp or any other fruit (banana, guava, pineapple). Giellette gets up two or three times a week at 2 in the morning to make her torment. The day before, she boils the cinnamon and lemon zest in water and sugar, then adds the flesh of the 30 to 40 roasted coconuts' by her husband. Then she cooks for 3 to 4 hours over low heat. The next day, Giellette makes his broken dough. There, no problem. "You know how to make broken dough, do not you?" The secret is of course in this famous coconut jam ... Then we prepare a sponge cake, spread the jam on the broken dough and cover with the sponge cake. Bake 15 to 20 minutes and you're done! "The secret is finally cowardly Heaven, it's ... to do them with love!"

The traditional Saintoises that can still be admired during various popular regattas organized in the year would be born of the know-how of the European marine carpenters who came to settle in the Saintes. This is probably why the Saintois remain very attached and never miss an opportunity to prove aboard their traditional boats that they have not usurped their reputation as the best sailors of Guadeloupe.
Where does the particular form of the wooden boat from the past come from, which gave its name to all the boats in Guadeloupe? According to Alain Foy, now retired marine carpenter, "it is a rowboat of schooners having discovered Guadeloupe that would be at
the origin of the Saintoise, the traditional Guadeloupe boat. Before the appearance of the engines, this hollow canoe, well adapted to the high seas, was maneuvered by paddling and sailing. Alain Foy, who built his first boat at the age of 17, did his apprenticeship with George Cassin, another great Saintes carpenter. "At the time, there were four or five carpenters (S." Characteristic of this boat that has adapted to technical developments: an assembly of different woods - red mahogany, northern wood, calabash, catalpa - a standing hull and a weighted keel with rocks to go upwind. "I was going to cut the pear on the Grand Î / and with my father, barefoot in snowshoes, remembers Alain Foy, our pear tree is harder than the pear tree from Guadeloupe and it does not rot at all.

At the beginning of the 60's, with the appearance of the outboard motor, it is necessary to adapt the traditional Saintoise, to improve it so that it supports engines more and more powerful and therefore, more and more heavy. "When the boats went to the engine, they bumped, which broke the frames and required a lot of repairs," explains Alain Foy.The marine carpenter then draws a plywood boat better adapted to the sea and swarming in all ports The sails disappear, the canoe flattens out because it is no longer necessary to sail upwind, the hull becomes more buoyant and more stable, then the wood gradually gives way to composite materials.
At the Pineau shipyards, we are a carpenter from father to son. Gaetan learned the trade with his father; his uncle and his godfather also built traditional Saintois. "Five years ago, everyone in Les Saintes was able to build his traditional canoe," he explains. But today young people want to go fast, not waste time. However, they remain attached to the shipbuilding of the island, as David, pure Saintois, who has purchased a boat from the site Pineau. "The boat is a means of daily locomotion for us. Here, we use a boat as in Guadeloupe we take his car. For me, it's important that it be built at Les Saintes ".
Despite these evolutions, the traditional Saintoise has not quite disappeared. It still shows off proudly at traditional sailing gatherings, such as the Tour de la Guadeloupe sailing held in July. The Saintois who own the second fleet of the archipelago with six traditional boats are always ready to defend their reputation as the best sailors of Guadeloupe (there are even two clubs on the island). All canoes engaged in these regattas meet a very precise gauge (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 planks and the floor, the pear for the frames and the bow. Sails must be connected to the boom by creepers (ravet wings). The shape and cut of the canoe are less important than the crew of five men. "It's hard to say that a canoe is good. It is a whole. You can have a good canoe with a good crew, but if you change the crew, then the boat is no longer good, "says Harry Mariette, president of the traditional sailing association Calingo de Vieux-Fort; "Because these canoes designed for the high seas and weighted rocks require a perfect mastery of navigation.Every fault maneuver can be fatal, causing the boat to capsize or fill with water.