My wife and I arrived June 16 on LIAT from San Juan for our umpteenth visit to St. Martin after a few days on Puerto Rico for variety. The San Juan airport was a zoo with departing cruise passengers; this didn't affect us, but I would not like to fly out of that airport on a major carrier on Sunday. No line at St. Martin immigration, but as we had to gate-check a bag we had a bit of a wait while they off-loaded the luggage. Myra from Triple-A car rental (Alain Arnell) was waiting for us and we got the usual excellent and problem-free service - a Nissan Sentra in good condition.<br><br>The island was extremely brown when we arrived - no rain for several weeks - but this was made up for on Monday, when it rained on and off most of the day. We used it to visit some supermarkets, which my wife fortunately prefers to jewelry stores. There were a few more showers the next day or two, but the weather steadily improved for the rest of our stay. <br><br>We stayed at Grand Case Beach Club, our usual spot, and got a third floor ocean view with the usual good treatment. Our only complaint was bath towels - they overly generous to the point where we had no more room in the bathroom for them. (This is a dig at the ClubO folks - see Carol Hill's report.) The main beach in front of the hotel has suffered considerable erosion - it is gone for quite a distance toward the village. The walks along the beach to town are a thing of the past now. There is a corner left at the hotel that is very nice and provides a calm area for swimming, but it is small. Petit Plage, the hotel's second beach, is fine though.<br><br>Although we had plans for some activities, sand gravity seemed stronger than usual, and we spent most of our time on Orient (happy to have met the Hills there, the only TTOL flag we saw), with a couple of half days on Dawn Beach at Scavenger's. The road over the hill from Oyster Pond (sorry - Oyster Bay now that it has become too big to be a pond anymore) has been resurfaced and is very good. This end of the beach where the old Dawn Beach hotel used to be is a lot less popular than the other end, but I think nicer. Scavenger's is a low key and fairly limited operation, but they have chairs and umbrellas, restrooms, and a menu that we like.<br><br>The ClubO end of Orient was pretty well occupied most times that we were there. Some sand has returned at Pedro's and beyond, but the stretch immediately north of Pedro's is ugly - a virtually solid wall of eating establishments fronted by a row of beach chairs before the drop-off to the water. <br><br>We did manage to take a sunset cruise on the lagoon on the Lagoon Princess. We highly recommend this experience - a pleasant hour and a half, an unobtrusive commentary that was both amusing and informative, and very good frozen rum punch (and other drinks).<br><br>Restaurants - we have a number of favorites that we go to year after year. I know we should try new ones, but we don't want to miss these, so we are stuck. Our taste run to Creole, so we don't do much with the gourmet French places. This is a log in no particular order. <br>Marks - still excellent food at very good prices, and now set up so you don't notice the parking lot surrounding it. Went twice for excellent conch stew.<br>Bistro Nu - unusual dishes very well made. Was full our first visit, nearly empty the second. Jean-Claude was, as usual, very gracious.<br>La California - we find their regular menu good (more Creole), but the Bretonne crepes are unusual and delicious - as is the complementary rum punch. The souvenir Polaroid is a nice touch if you like that kind of thing.<br>Yvettes - still the best for local food. We were surprised to be the only people there.<br>Shiv Sagar - we like Indian food even more than Creole, and they have very good Indian food. The best nan, and the condiments alone are worth the visit. Went twice here also.<br>Le Mambo - this is a small, very attractive restaurant on the land side of the street in Grand Case that we hadn't been to for a year. The menu has some interesting and unusual preparations that are excellent. We haven't seen this mentioned very much, but it should be more popular. Very nice service from Maryline.<br>La Main a la Pate - we got a lot of suggestions for my wife's pizza (thanks to those who responded), but we settled on this restaurant as our only dinner at the Marigot marina; no disappointment, the pizza was great. It was packed Sunday night, but most of the other establishments were closed.<br><br>We got good service in all of these places, but then except for La Main and California we are known in all of them.<br><br>Although we do most of our own lunches, we did go to La Belle Epoque since they have a tropical fruit salad that my wife has to have every year; the onion soup and goat cheese salad aren't bad either. Also did Scavenger's and Papagayo's.<br><br>Currency: the Euro - dollar conversion was erratic. Some menus had prices listed in both currencies based on who knows what conversion factor. A few places, and this includes Bounty, have the same price in Euros and dollars. The Guess gas station in Orleans (Alain Arnell's place) made a careful calculation of the exchange - I don't recall what it was, but it seemed pretty good, while the Grand Case station just gave a dollar back from a 20 euro bill. About the only euros we saw was a 1 euro coin given as change with apologies by some place that was running out of $1's, and a couple of euro cents masquerading as pennies.<br><br>Crime: didn't encounter any. However, some comments by locals and on local talk radio suggests that there is more crime against tourists than the officials want to admit, so care is warranted. A security guard with a nasty looking dog was patrolling the Marigot marina on Sunday night, and there was a guard on Front Street in Philipsburg near Shiv Sagar. This street was pretty deserted, but you can park across the street from the restaurant. We saw no sign of security in Grand Case, while it was very evident last year. <br><br>Anse de Petites Cayes: someone recently asked about this beach. It had been years since we saw it, so drove over late Sunday afternoon. There is a good deal of construction at the beginning of the road, which is rock and best suited to the garbage trucks. We were surprised when we got to the beach to find the road lined with cars and a lot of people on the beach. Apparently it is pretty popular with locals - perhaps they go there to get away from the tourists. The beach has a lot more sand than we remember, but is mostly very narrow and stony in spots. The hills along it are used for launching hang gliders.<br><br>Departure: we checked in before 10 AM, when there were few people present. As we use carry-on, we avoided the hand search of luggage. Afterwards, drove around a bit (Maho beach was almost deserted) and had lunch at Ric's before turning in the car. Carry-ons were being randomly hand searched - we were selected for a very cursory inspection. The flight to JFK was uncrowded and uneventful, and got in early.<br><br><br>