I stay on the French side and eat in Orient Bay or Grand Case exclusively. I was just in Paris and Nice this summer. I now try to speak some basic French with the servers (but I’m not fluent by any means) but I also don’t tip unless service is out of this world. It’s still obvious that I’m American though. Does speaking French make any difference in St Martin? First trip back to the island in a few weeks since 2016. My fluency was terrible back then (bonjour, merci, ça va was about it).