stbartslover
Senior Insider
In my case, it was a long time between SB trips since our villa is rented weekly and I enjoy arranging most maintenance details. Caroline and I had last been in March over Bucket Week, usually I'm on island at least once a summer for ongoing villa maintenace but other issues postponed this "mostly work" trip until October.
Fortunately, friends planned to be on the island then and my wife decided to join me---which was even better.
Arrival in St Maarten....transfer gate was closed, but I was still surprised to see the terminal completely full, even though it was a Saturday.
Flamands down the sidewalk from our villa where we'd often walk mornings, without a single weed.
St Jean, typical afternoons swimming this beautiful plage. New parking areas make this beach SO much easier to visit. Eden Roc (the ant farm) as it's called due to the number of workers this time of year getting ready for the season. The entire island was busling with activity, especially the hotels.
Eden Roc: every place you could possibly have a worker had one---cleaning, scrubbing, painting...even the palm trees were being power washed!
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Isle de France Cheval Blanc: was being completely rebuilt according to a worker, this pic early in the trip. I'm told they opened on time October 15.
Longtime General Manager Christellle has been has been retained.
Hotel Le Toiny: near the end of the trip we drove out to see the new activity and were told nicely by the general contractors to come back later, since they wanted to "surprise" with the new renovation.
We were invited to "wine hour" by Wendy Carlton at Hotel Normadie, friends joined us (Dennis, I brought wine) and we enjoyed the always warm company of this place.
Other than routine maintenace, the main purpose of this trip was to install a new Dupont Corian kitchen countertop, which is what we have in the bathrooms. The former lower one was Avonite (also solid surface) but it had a small crack that happened in transit that over the years I tried unsuccessfly to have fixed a couple of times, so I decided to have a new one fabricated and shipped from Michigan. No one on St Barts really does this so my friends shop back home provided detailed instructions and all the materials including custom matching glue and resin. I've watched it done but this was a "first rodeo" in my case.
Corian is an excellent product for the Caribbean since it's clean, seamless and less brittle than others, and no mold or stains can adhere to it either. A decorator in Ann Arbor contrasted the color perfectly.
Diana met the crate at the dock & arranged for the 2 heavy pieces to be unpacked in the parking area schlepped up to the villa----not an easy task...
My good friend and master carpenter Didier made a day available to do the insallation, which can a little tricky, Diana stopped by to help.
With a morning of very careful preparation, several dry fits, slight trimming and tiny shims, glue and fusing of the two large pieces---seam to the left of the sink (you have a single chance to get this right) invisible!
Everyone on the crew got along, too.
We celebrated with ice cold Caribs.
Sometimes instead of explaining the US/Euro interface, it's easier to do it yourself...
New cooktop: my wife it turned out was better than I at completing wiring of the 220V Euro burner igniters. Note the colors of the connections: French use blue to blue and a green/yellow strand the middle one can be brown or black. I decided to replace the gas line as well, from experience, these projects tend to morph.
Some final paint touchups
Voila!
Restaurants:
even though only about 20% or so of the restaurnts (no major hotels) were open we still dined pretty well. Friends/fellow villa neighbors had us over for an outstanding pair of meals as well. We liked Cote Port for lunch and dinner, Le Repaire, Pipri and Les Banniers for dinner and pizza.
Petite Colombe changed hands recently, and the new baker Jessica has made some changes to their excellent fare.
The excellent chef at LeSprit came out to say hello, which was the most exotic in terms of dining and atmosphere with a 55E special.
Great to see old friend Thierry at his new place in Lorient....beautiful presentation from one of the nicest guys on the island.
We looked in on Santa Fe and the good natured owner was like the rest of us, doing maintenance.
The closest place to a "scene" was LaPlage on St Jean with a lunch special.
While waiting for pizza I had a nice chat with Michael of St Barth Commuter where he's the airworthiness manager. He said the transition from the old piston engine BN Islander to Turbo Cessna 208 Carravan aircraft was complete with a fleet now of four. Michael explained their exchange program with Pratt & Whitney for the reliable PT6 engine happened halfway through it's life with a new powerplant which was important because they SBC flies single engine.
We shared that pizza with Diana and DDA with some tasty organic greens from home along with a couple of nice dinners out.
Sunday, we drove over to Grand Cul de Sac---this is what you imagine a beach bar to be.
Final days there were so many little projects like this I lost track....vac of the dryer vent, changing filters...it goes on.
We extended the trip a couple of days to take care of details but found time the last afternoon for a leisurely lunch on the water at Code Port, then viewing some sale merchandise on the shops. My wife considered, but passed on these shoes as the color was maybe a little "out there" even with jeans. We did pick up a couple of the bags on sale in the background as gifts.
We're back with friends over the winter so hopefully we can see some of ours on St Barts, too!