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SBH Insider
Woke up early Wednesday morning, notably much earlier than I thought possible. It was light outside south of 6 am, and this was a bit surprising. We can't sleep past about 7 am anyway, but I was surprised to see morning's rays seeping through our curtains on the supposedly dark side of 6. But no matter - thankful to have breakfast delivered to the villa that morning by Wimco, a nice baguette and an assortment of pastries. Fired the coffee pot up and had a nice light meal outside on the porch while we planned our day.
Given the constraints of our villa location (Vitet) with road closures we decided to take it easy and head down to GcdS and get beach chairs at Le Barthelemy. As reported on these pages, the transats were 35e apiece which we felt was a fair price for the day. We learned, however, that these don't necessarily come with service as we had to walk up to the bar for drinks and the like. Is that normal after paying for the chairs? But in the end, what's a few steps? Not a problem at all. Had a drink there in the morning while ready and enjoying the nice breeze and gentle waves. It was a very peaceful morning.
We walked down to Ti Corail without a reservation to inquire but they only had a 2 pm seating so we politely passed. Didn't make a reservation because we weren't sure of our plans, but got Yann's card and hope to have a lunch there in the coming days. Opted to lunch at Le Rivage instead given their wide open availability. We had a nice lunch there, started with glasses of rose and champagne along with a rather plain salad before sharing two pizzas. Of note, I learned a few things at this lunch. One is that if you would like bread to start it is prudent to ask for such. The second being that lessons learned in St. Barths are rarely free - we were planning to split a pizza but were upsold by the waitress into getting a second. Now both were delicious, but really we just needed one, especially if she had brought us the bread that I feel is customary? Though I could be wrong here. That seemed like a 20e lesson. All in all, a nice lunch. Also learned that while a euro more expensive than Carib, a Heineken is actually less in volume than the requisite Caribbean beer - how about that! Lessons learned left and right.
Enjoyed time at Le Barthelemy until around 4 pm then made our way back to our villa for some pool time prior to dinner, which was at Fouquet's. Early contender for dinner of the trip - excellent Negronis and a nice starter of tune tartare. Now here I thought I ordered the beef tartare but was served a filet of beef rare (after the recommendation from the waiter). I would normally order a steak medium rare but we had a lost in translation moment . . . and I wound up with a truly phenomenal cut of beef with a nice white wine- and shallot-based sauce that I just about lapped up. (Side note - we were just about alone at the restaurant, fascinating how slow it truly gets during "slow season.") Ended with the chocolate mousse and we were quite happy.
A great day. No sightings of Phil nor Amy, who are clearly averse to the free cocktail or glass of wine that awaits them should we happen across their presence.
Song of the day (why not)?:
Given the constraints of our villa location (Vitet) with road closures we decided to take it easy and head down to GcdS and get beach chairs at Le Barthelemy. As reported on these pages, the transats were 35e apiece which we felt was a fair price for the day. We learned, however, that these don't necessarily come with service as we had to walk up to the bar for drinks and the like. Is that normal after paying for the chairs? But in the end, what's a few steps? Not a problem at all. Had a drink there in the morning while ready and enjoying the nice breeze and gentle waves. It was a very peaceful morning.
We walked down to Ti Corail without a reservation to inquire but they only had a 2 pm seating so we politely passed. Didn't make a reservation because we weren't sure of our plans, but got Yann's card and hope to have a lunch there in the coming days. Opted to lunch at Le Rivage instead given their wide open availability. We had a nice lunch there, started with glasses of rose and champagne along with a rather plain salad before sharing two pizzas. Of note, I learned a few things at this lunch. One is that if you would like bread to start it is prudent to ask for such. The second being that lessons learned in St. Barths are rarely free - we were planning to split a pizza but were upsold by the waitress into getting a second. Now both were delicious, but really we just needed one, especially if she had brought us the bread that I feel is customary? Though I could be wrong here. That seemed like a 20e lesson. All in all, a nice lunch. Also learned that while a euro more expensive than Carib, a Heineken is actually less in volume than the requisite Caribbean beer - how about that! Lessons learned left and right.
Enjoyed time at Le Barthelemy until around 4 pm then made our way back to our villa for some pool time prior to dinner, which was at Fouquet's. Early contender for dinner of the trip - excellent Negronis and a nice starter of tune tartare. Now here I thought I ordered the beef tartare but was served a filet of beef rare (after the recommendation from the waiter). I would normally order a steak medium rare but we had a lost in translation moment . . . and I wound up with a truly phenomenal cut of beef with a nice white wine- and shallot-based sauce that I just about lapped up. (Side note - we were just about alone at the restaurant, fascinating how slow it truly gets during "slow season.") Ended with the chocolate mousse and we were quite happy.
A great day. No sightings of Phil nor Amy, who are clearly averse to the free cocktail or glass of wine that awaits them should we happen across their presence.
Song of the day (why not)?:
