My wife and I just returned from another wonderful week in St. Martin. The direct flight from Newark on Continental was uneventful. We packed very light and were able to carry everything in our hand luggage, so there was no waiting around in the Princess Juliana Airport to retrieve checked suitcases. We rented our car from Kenny's Car Rental, so Lesley Bruce met us at the airport terminal, and we filled out the paperwork in about two minutes while sitting inside the rental car (with the air conditioner on). Within fifteen minutes after our plane pulled into the terminal, we were exiting the airport parking lot. We will definitely adopt this same approach for future trips.

Leaving the airport, we turned left and traveled through the Terres Basses to Marigot and then on to Orient Beach (a much quicker route than heading through Simpson Bay). We checked into Esmeralda Resort in time to relax in our villa pool before dinner. Fortunately, the other two couples in our villa also enjoyed using the pool au naturel, so we had a wonderful week ... and made some very good new friends to boot.

On Sunday, 10/23, the waves on Orient Beach were absolutely mountainous. They washed so far up on the beach that there was almost no beach at all. My wife and I claimed two chaises up against the rocky hill at Cocos Beach and the sea water nearly came under our chairs. Cocos survived only because it is raised up off of the beach about 18 inches. My wife and I tried to go into the surf but were hit by a six foot high wall of suds produced by breakers further out and concluded that swimming was too dangerous.
To escape the angry seas, we walked down to Club Orient in the afternoon and swam there, protected by the reef. The water was still heaving but was safe to enter.

All week long, the waves remained high, but by Monday, the entire stretch of Orient Beach was swimmable, so long as you paid respectful attention to the incoming waves. On Monday, some of the beach was dry once again, and by Thursday, the beach was pretty much back to normal.

Aside from the unusual high seas, the most interesting part of our trip was watching the lights come on in Grand Case. During our week in St. Martin, the french side restaurant world literally woke up from its late summer lethargic slumber and commenced operations for the 2005-6 season. On Saturday night, October 15th, Grand Case was virtually dead; only L'Hibiscus, Il Netuno, Restaurant du Soleil, Le Tastevin, L'Escapade, Le Maeva and Chez Martine were open. One by one during the course of the ensuing seven nights, many of the other Grand Case restaurants opened for the 2005-6 season, including Le Pressoir, L'Auberge Gourmande, L'Alabama, La California and Sebastiano ... with Spiga and Fish Pot set to reopen during the following week. Bistrot Caraibes was not open on October 15th, but I understand that it is closed on Saturday nights, so it may have been open previously; in any event, it was open on Sunday, October 16th and remained open the rest of the week. Also, Baywatch on Orient Beach reopened on October 20th. My wife and I literally were the first customers of the season in several of the restaurants, and we never needed reservations but could simply walk into whatever restaurant we decided to select.

We have never had a bad meal in Grand Case, and this trip was no exception. Our most memorable meals, however, were at La California, Bistrot Caraibes and Le Pressoir. We also had a surprisingly fine meal at Le Fish Bar in Orient Village, for less than half of the cost of the typical meal in Grand Case.

Sand gravity did a number on us, especially in light of the terrific friends that we made on the clothing optional side of Cocos Beach. One night, a group of the Cocos beachgoers gathered for cocktails around our Esmeralda pool and had such a good time that the party did not break up until well after sunset. Thanks to the good times that we had with our new friends, we spent every day on Orient Beach, never venturing to other venues. Plans to try Loterie Farm and the America's Cup Challenge were deferred until next time.

Our apologies to the Travel Talk members who gathered for drinks on October 18th at BBB. We ran into abysmal traffic as soon as we crossed the border to the Dutch side and consequently were 45 minutes late arriving at the party. Because we had agreed to meet friends for dinner, our time at the party was extremely brief. As bad as the traffic was getting to BBB, the traffic on the way back to Orient Beach was ridiculous. Perhaps some TT members who stay on the Dutch side would care to explain why they are willing to tolerate traffic like that on their vacation. We were happy to get back to the relatively open roads on the french side and did not return to the Dutch side again until we had to return to the airport for our journey home.

All in all, it was another wonderful week in St. Martin. More's the pity that we will not be able to return until next June.