A note about "end of the season burn out" which may have been shared to you by staff or you witnessed (this is not negative toward you EVE btw). The hospitality business is tough. You can't have a bad night as you have to be "on" all the time even if you fake it and are giving hellos and bon jours to people that act like they really know you but only frequent your establishment once a year, once every few years or a few times a week and then their less than perfect experience gets posted about on a forum by some. It reminds me of the old Fantasy Island "smiles everyone". We don't see many of the same waitstaff back as once was the case at many restaurants, because they can't afford to live on the island. We see many change overs in ownerships due to high rents (by ownership I mean temporary lease holders as most restaurant owners don't own their properties). I applaud the service industry workers on SBH. Imagine having people over and over again ask silly questions, practice poor French, not leave a tip after reading too many forums
and basically act like they really know what is in your soul and THEN talk #$%t about their experience publicly. Phil and Amy and a few others, have defined the art of graciousness perfectly by only posting about their fabulous meals which I have tried hard to follow.
My only hope is that many of the workers who couldn't afford to make a vacation home to France are safe on the island as well as the others who could afford to take a holiday, and scrounge up the spirit to go back at it IF they still have a home, to make something of a season that everyone, while being sympathetic to this catastrophe, will be comparing to past experiences on-island. We can all kid ourselves but that will be the case.
Cheers to the service workers and everyone on SBH who are working without any luxuries to create an environment for tourists and long time visitors to return. The stories I have heard are heart wrenching. Please keep all these people in your hearts should you be able to return as flights and lodging are being made available and give extra hugs and consideration.