I’m looking out to the sea off Le Carbet, tasting a selection of Rhum Agricole from Martinique’s newest distillery, Baie de Tresor, a handful of bottles sitting on a barrel right on the beach. 

I had some accras to start, and there’s l’espadon with peppercorn sauce on the menu, followed by a pineapple crumble merengue that could probably start a war. 

This is a good day. 

It’s also every day at Le Petibonum, the tiny beach Mecca on the volcanic sands of Le Carbet in the north of Martinique. 

Le Petibonum is the masterwork of visionary chef Guy Ferdinand, who nearly two decades ago found this corner of what was at the time an empty coastline in a quiet fishing village. 

Today, Petibonum is the anchor of a bustling beach town filled with superb food shacks and watering holes and eateries, part of the growth of Carbet itself, home to a vibrant, culturally rich beachfront community. 

Ferdinand has a simple strategy here: a broad selection of the island’s Rhum Agricoles, copious cocktails and the kind of haute cuisine that would typically have no business being in a toes in the sand beach bar.

But that’s what makes this place so magical. 

A ti punch here Is a bucket list Caribbean experience, best served with Neisson rum made at the distillery two minutes’ drive up the road from here. 

It’s best taken in the sparkling clear water of Le Carbet. 

What Ferdinand has done with this spot is remarkable, especially in the wake of a fire that destroyed much of the place at the beginning of this year. 

But as he always does, Ferdinand adapted, turning a food truck into the kitchen, rebuilding the beachscape and raising even further the level of the food.  And despite the immense quality, there’s no attitude. 

It’s a beach bar at heart, a place for infinite afternoons and ti’ punches right in the water. 

But it’s far more than a beach bar. 

And that’s why it’s so impossible to leave. 

For more, visit Le Petibonum.