France is divided into administrative regions called départements. One of four overseas départements (1), Guadeloupe is located in the Caribbean, southeast of Puerto Rico. Half of the island sits in the Caribbean Sea while the other half sits in the North Atlantic Ocean. People often have trouble understanding how Guadeloupe and France relate to one another, often assuming that Guadeloupe is some sort of colony. It is not a colony of France (though it once was) ... or a territory, or a protectorate. To help people grasp the idea of Guadeloupe, I often make the comparison of Guadeloupe/France to Hawaii/United States, even though départements and states are not equivalent on an administrative level.
Guadeloupe is actually composed of two islands: Grand Terre and Basse Terre. Separating the two is a a salt water strait, la Rivière Salée (Salty River). These two islands form the left and right 'wings' that create the butterfly of Guadeloupe. While it cannot compare with the region's largest islands (Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico), Guadeloupe is still fairly large. Measuring a surface area of 1,373 km², Guadeloupe is more than 20 times the size of Manhattan.
(1) The three other overseas departments, called departements d'outre mer (DOM) are Martinique, Guyane and la Réunion.
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