The village of Dame Marie was built around twenty five years ago after the previous settlement on the site was destroyed by a hurricane. It sits on the unsurfaced coast road between the towns of Cap Matelot and Port Roche. This part of St Joseph is mostly wasteland, filled with thorny bayahonde bushes and other scrub growth, but there are a few scattered thatch-roofed caille here and there throughout the countryside.
On the outskirts of town the pier and fishermen’s shacks at Pointe Pierre divide the beach in two, to the west the cove of Anse Douce, to the east the long stretch of beach that leads to the Azagon Hotel. Across the water from Anse Douce is the Ile du Vent. From Pointe Pierre there is now a road climbing up through the main street and rows of assorted small shops, among them, here and there, some of the town's better homes - second-story verandas with rickety railings overhanging the pavement.
In the middle of town the open-air marketplace, under its half-acre roof of banana thatch, is always filled with tables in preparation for the once-a-week market day. Behind the marketplace is the Hounfor district, the poorest part of town.
Close to the waterfront, but still in the village of Dame Marie proper, rather than Pointe Pierre, is the Sharktooth bar, owned and run by the venerable Aubert. It caters more to the townsfolk than fishermen and is most lively in the early evening when the day’s work is done. The open seating area looks out over the beach with a canopy providing a little cover for half the seating nearest the bar. The bar is known for its good food and a good part of this reputation is down to the skills of Florence Lavigne who tends bar and cooks in the kitchen part time.
Dame Marie has no electric lighting, except at the school which has its own power plant, so once darkness falls the nightlife is limited. A few shops on the main street sell drinks, but people mostly stay at home after dark. A few of the town's teenagers hang around Pointe Pierre in the evening, a shrewd shopkeeper there has invested in an expensive, battery-powered radio, that can pick up music from the bigger stations broadcasting from Cuba or the US.
