PeterLynn
Senior Insider
First week goes by fast!
Stressful Friday. Impending storms and an hour layover in MIA, so we contacted Vincent for the first time to help us should we miss our 3:30 SBC flight and coordinate plan B, C, D, etc.... Uber picks us up at 2:30am as the storms held off in Houston, but a crazy ground stop in MIA due to an air show delayed us an hour. All work out and Helene with Corcoran guides us through the new detour via Corossol to the villa in Flamands. Ahhhh , we're home as the cell phones automatically connect to the WiFi!
Sunset stroll past a couple of villas and we're seated at our traditional first night dinner at La Langouste. Plenty of lobsters to choose from, so we share what turned out the best we've had in so many years. Very tender and flaky. Fellow forum member CaribbeanSoul was supposed to be on our SBC flight, but was delayed in CLT and missed it. I later found out he made the 4:30 flight, but in the meantime, I toasted their hopeful success in making it with a second Ti Punch (sans glacons). Great start to a long day.
Saturday, we meet up with friends at Bar de L'Oublie to toast everyone's arrival. Le Jardin is offering Moules, so one must take advantage of it. They had two offerings, one tomato & chorizo(?) and the other with heavy cream. I chose the latter, but I prefer the traditional wine sauce. Dinner is the four of us at L'Esprit where we are warmly greeted by 'Tof. Unlike previous visits, this one has been dominated by spending time with familiar faces, so food is consumed long before thoughts of photographing it is considered. The highlight was the tuna tartar with an apple sorbet and was so good that 'Tof offered the table an additional one:
Sunday is a "Villa Day" with Jabon Beurre sandwiches and Steak Poivre for dinner. Maybe it is just us, but beef is one thing the French haven't quite figured out yet, so again we brought our own from home.
With the sun setting, we retire to the villa's "palm garden" to finish off the wine to the sound of the crashing waves. Ahhhh St Barths......
Monday takes us to LTBC and our second "annual" lunch with Dennis. Conversation went well past a couple of ti punches a spritz or two plus a bottle of rose. The tales that Dennis spins are so engrossing that no photos were taken. A sign of the week ahead. That evening is capped with a nice Flamands sunset and leftover steak sandwiches.
Tuesday we meet up with our friends and the first of the "Junies" (Carol and Dave) to arrive at Le Select. Lots of catching up over beverages and a "Marius Special", which is much better than the first burger I had there years ago. Dinner is pizza at Les Bananiers, although I was overruled and had to settle for Jabon and Champignons. Fortunately Luigi is great at what he does and it is an enjoyable meal. Conversation, and maybe hunger, again kept pictures from being taken.
Lunch Wednesday is Ti Corail. The table started off with a fantastic tuna tartare and good, although a bit over fried, accras. Not photographed was an amazing truffled croque monsieur. Lynn and I ordered the lobster rolls, which unfortunately was mostly crab with a bit of lobster? Should have ordered the larger tartare. Second time the rolls have disappointed.
That evening was a wonderful time again catching up with more friends at Eddy's and again, no pictures. Thursday is a palate cleanser, which means a trip to "The JoJo". Best fish burger on the island!
Friday, we invited fellow Junies (which appears to extend back to the last week in May?), Carol and Dave to lunch at the "new" Grain del Sel. Same setting, but so much better. While seafood-centric, they offered plenty for those who were less enthusiastic. I had a wonderful tuna tartare with mango sorbet, while Lynn and Carol had the special, pork tenderloin with a Caribbean sauce? Dave the dorade as captured above in the picture below.
Dinner is tapas and drinks with our friends at their villa on Pointe Millou. Anticipation is for an amazing sunset, but the Saharan dust has started to move in, so it was a non-event.
Big European Championship match between Arsenal (England) and PSG (France) on Saturday and figured lunches would be dominated by rabid fans, so we opted to make this a villa day (PSG won, so probably a good choice).
Overall, this has been a great week. Highlight is spending time with familiar faces in lieu of trips to the beach and non-stop food porn sessions. Weather has been great with a few showers here and there. The island seems much quieter than in any previous May visit. Flamands has been very windy and probably discouraged visitors, but most days saw few if any beachwalkers. Usually Memorial weekend brings a flood of Americans to the Cheval Blanc, but this time the transats were mostly empty. Odd. The economy?
Traffic has also been light, except for the congestion at the Tourment and parking not too much of a problem. As a matter of fact, on our first full day, we enjoyed spritzes at Bar de L'Oblie and noticed that 2-3 parking spots remained unoccupied for stretches at a time. First time I've ever seen that happen!
Today is Fete des meres and lunch a Sand Bar. Let the second half begin!
Stressful Friday. Impending storms and an hour layover in MIA, so we contacted Vincent for the first time to help us should we miss our 3:30 SBC flight and coordinate plan B, C, D, etc.... Uber picks us up at 2:30am as the storms held off in Houston, but a crazy ground stop in MIA due to an air show delayed us an hour. All work out and Helene with Corcoran guides us through the new detour via Corossol to the villa in Flamands. Ahhhh , we're home as the cell phones automatically connect to the WiFi!
Sunset stroll past a couple of villas and we're seated at our traditional first night dinner at La Langouste. Plenty of lobsters to choose from, so we share what turned out the best we've had in so many years. Very tender and flaky. Fellow forum member CaribbeanSoul was supposed to be on our SBC flight, but was delayed in CLT and missed it. I later found out he made the 4:30 flight, but in the meantime, I toasted their hopeful success in making it with a second Ti Punch (sans glacons). Great start to a long day.
Saturday, we meet up with friends at Bar de L'Oublie to toast everyone's arrival. Le Jardin is offering Moules, so one must take advantage of it. They had two offerings, one tomato & chorizo(?) and the other with heavy cream. I chose the latter, but I prefer the traditional wine sauce. Dinner is the four of us at L'Esprit where we are warmly greeted by 'Tof. Unlike previous visits, this one has been dominated by spending time with familiar faces, so food is consumed long before thoughts of photographing it is considered. The highlight was the tuna tartar with an apple sorbet and was so good that 'Tof offered the table an additional one:
Sunday is a "Villa Day" with Jabon Beurre sandwiches and Steak Poivre for dinner. Maybe it is just us, but beef is one thing the French haven't quite figured out yet, so again we brought our own from home.
With the sun setting, we retire to the villa's "palm garden" to finish off the wine to the sound of the crashing waves. Ahhhh St Barths......
Monday takes us to LTBC and our second "annual" lunch with Dennis. Conversation went well past a couple of ti punches a spritz or two plus a bottle of rose. The tales that Dennis spins are so engrossing that no photos were taken. A sign of the week ahead. That evening is capped with a nice Flamands sunset and leftover steak sandwiches.
Tuesday we meet up with our friends and the first of the "Junies" (Carol and Dave) to arrive at Le Select. Lots of catching up over beverages and a "Marius Special", which is much better than the first burger I had there years ago. Dinner is pizza at Les Bananiers, although I was overruled and had to settle for Jabon and Champignons. Fortunately Luigi is great at what he does and it is an enjoyable meal. Conversation, and maybe hunger, again kept pictures from being taken.
Lunch Wednesday is Ti Corail. The table started off with a fantastic tuna tartare and good, although a bit over fried, accras. Not photographed was an amazing truffled croque monsieur. Lynn and I ordered the lobster rolls, which unfortunately was mostly crab with a bit of lobster? Should have ordered the larger tartare. Second time the rolls have disappointed.
That evening was a wonderful time again catching up with more friends at Eddy's and again, no pictures. Thursday is a palate cleanser, which means a trip to "The JoJo". Best fish burger on the island!
Friday, we invited fellow Junies (which appears to extend back to the last week in May?), Carol and Dave to lunch at the "new" Grain del Sel. Same setting, but so much better. While seafood-centric, they offered plenty for those who were less enthusiastic. I had a wonderful tuna tartare with mango sorbet, while Lynn and Carol had the special, pork tenderloin with a Caribbean sauce? Dave the dorade as captured above in the picture below.
Dinner is tapas and drinks with our friends at their villa on Pointe Millou. Anticipation is for an amazing sunset, but the Saharan dust has started to move in, so it was a non-event.
Big European Championship match between Arsenal (England) and PSG (France) on Saturday and figured lunches would be dominated by rabid fans, so we opted to make this a villa day (PSG won, so probably a good choice).
Overall, this has been a great week. Highlight is spending time with familiar faces in lieu of trips to the beach and non-stop food porn sessions. Weather has been great with a few showers here and there. The island seems much quieter than in any previous May visit. Flamands has been very windy and probably discouraged visitors, but most days saw few if any beachwalkers. Usually Memorial weekend brings a flood of Americans to the Cheval Blanc, but this time the transats were mostly empty. Odd. The economy?
Traffic has also been light, except for the congestion at the Tourment and parking not too much of a problem. As a matter of fact, on our first full day, we enjoyed spritzes at Bar de L'Oblie and noticed that 2-3 parking spots remained unoccupied for stretches at a time. First time I've ever seen that happen!
Today is Fete des meres and lunch a Sand Bar. Let the second half begin!
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