Our visit here has been magical. The weather has been gorgeous nearly every day. Gregg and I are tanned a deeper brown after just a week here than we are after an entire summer in Boston. We have relaxed by the pool – often times without benefit (or hindrance?) of clothing. Our tans are all around, through and through.
Yesterday we lounged by the pool, swam and had lunch (what little there was) here at the house. We had made reservations for 7:30 back in Grande Case at Spiga which is a restaurant that came highly recommended by Tom and Joe. We decided to leave here early and make a quick stop at Fort Louis in St. Louis before heading into Grande Case. The fort is a relic from the 1600s and commands an unbelievable perch atop what must be one of the tallest hills on the French side of the island. Hundreds of years ago this location commanded an imposing presence on any would be invaders by land or sea. Unlike in the United States, these sites are protected but not overly commercialized which means there is a fort, some walking paths, and parking nearby. No souvenir shops, public toilets, guides, guards or mascots to get in the way of enjoying a little piece of history.
We arrived at the fort just at sunset and the views were spectacular. Looking over the harbor, southwest, the sun was just setting over the hills near the airport. Enormous yachts were berthed in the harbor – a combination of private and commercial vessels, some which were seemingly at the end of their day and others just beginning to load up and set sail.
There were just a handful of other folks in the fort enjoying the sunset and eventually making their way out of the park as did we. The gendarmie came to close up the park for the night and were taken with the sunset themselves, one of them jumping out of their official vehicle to take a snapshot of the setting sun. It was really quite breathtaking and i hope my photos adequately capture the magic of the place.
We then headed into Grande Case but were a few minutes early for our dinner reservation, so to kill some time we strolled down the main pot-holed narrow street that struggled to live up to the grandeur of its name “Boulevard de Grande Case”. We passed a number of fine restaurants that somehow escaped our attention when we were here earlier this week. There were several perfunctory souvenir shops and then we stumbled upon an art gallery, Tropismes Gallery, which represents local artists as well as artists from some of the other Caribbean islands. We stopped in and I was pleasantly impressed with the artists it represented, most of whom i had never come across before, including, Stephen Bennett, Antoine Chapon, Christian Sabas and Nathalie Lepine. It turns out, the father of the woman who was manning the gallery yesterday evening was also being repped there, (her name flew by me but she said that she was in Boston once some years ago with her family, who were travelling to Boston as her father was accepting an art award in Boston!) was very Provincetown in his style and subject matter.
As we strolled through the gallery we saw a lot of interesting work. In the back of the shop near the door hung a relatively inexpensive painting by an artist from El Salvador, Louis Oviedo called 3-musicos. I decided for $375 the price was right. I love the composition and we can always find a place for it in my study or elsewhere.
Dinner at Spiga was delightful and the food was delicious. It may have surpassed Sol e Luna for the quality of the cuisine. From what we have tasted so far, the meats – beef in particular – have not been particularly good on the island (the fish and red snapper have been unbeatable), but Spiga’s Osso Bucco was spectacular and the lamb shank Gregg had was scrumptious too. I would return again and again if we had the opportunity!
Today we spent lounging about the pool and just resting. It’s been a long and action packed vacation! We entertained visitors for five days, celebrated New Year’s, toured various parts of the island by car and foot, taken hundreds of photos — so today we simply rested. Tomorrow we will be taking the 8:50 am ferry to St. Barts from Marigot which is about a 30 minute drive away. We will spend the the day on St Barts and will return on the 5;30pm ferry back to Marigot . By the time we hit the sack tomorrow evening I will have had my fill of St. Martin, sand, the Sun, and vacation generally. I’m ready to return home. Good thing too, because our flights depart at 2:00pm Monday afternoon.
