Just a final follow-up to anyone that might be interested…
We had a lovely time staying at Villa Canoua, as several have guessed. It has a beautiful view, private pool, and is very well stocked. We hope to stay there again.
We tried Orient a couple of days… looking for comfy chairs as our main goal since I am still recovering from a broken tail bone in the spring. We headed to Coco beach, as I had read they had comfortable chairs. But, upon inquiry, the cost was 20 euros per chair, even if you ate & drank there. No way I was paying that when just up the beach they were free. So, due to sargassum & cost, we just left and went to Friar’s Bay. Had a lovely lunch there and much cheaper chairs!! We tried another day and just picked the most comfortable looking chairs… they were at Sun Beach (I think was the name). In retrospect, we’d probably pick Orange Theory, since they also had padded chairs and looked to be run by locals (as opposed to all French at the Saint Bart’s owned place we went). We had a lovely day, but the seaweed and wind were pretty bad. I am not too bothered by the sargassum as I rarely swim at Orient anyway since it’s so windy I don’t get hot!
Our dinners were at Bistro Caraibes, Le Pressoir, Le Bistronome, Spiga, Lolos & Charcuterie a couple of nights at the villa; lunches at Friar’s Bay Café, Sun Beach at Orient; Dany’s at Happy Bay. All were good to great! Highlights, in our opinion (including our 6 days in Simpson Bay from previous post) were: The Calvary Platter at Palapa Grill, Rum Crème Brulee at Pineapple Petes, Lobster Thermador at Bistrot Caraibes, Raw Oysters with citrus fruit pearls at Le Pressoir, Iced Coconut with Chocolate sauce at Friar’s Bay, Charcuterie Platter at Spiga, and LITERALLY everything at Le Bistronome (Our pick for best meal in 20 days).
We are also enjoying the wonderful quality French Rose wines we are able to find here!! $10 or less for wonderful quality that cost more than 2x that at home. I was able to find a lovely rose from Bandol... almost impossible to find in Tennessee!
I seem to have a tendency to pick bad days to fly….Monday this time. While we were down here, requirements changed to 1 day before, rather the 3 as the previous requirements. As far as I know, no one but the airport tests on Sunday. However, Cindy told us about the walk-in COVID testing clinic in Grand Case, about 2 minutes drive from the Villa. So, we decided to just test early on travel day, since the flight didn’t leave until 4:10pm. We arrived at 8:00 (they start at 8:00), were numbers 13 & 14 in line, and had our negative test results by 8:52. If we’d arrived at 8:30, the wait would have been only about 25 minutes total. Cost was 25 Euros each. We were pleased. We had brunch at Rainbow and were able to stay at the Villa a little longer since no one was checking in today. We left the Villa at 1… encountered a little traffic in Marigot, but arrived at the airport by 1:45. Nothing remarkable happened on the way home… check -in at airport easy; Global Entry in Atlanta…easy… waiting to fly home now, but everything looks to be on time. All in all, a wonderful trip as always. Thanks again to all of you who always help make our trip so much better!
Pics are Charcuterie at Spiga, Brunch at Rainbow, and Friar’s Bay.
