Part 3 of 3

May 15 – Another great breakfast, and we were off to visit Bernadine yet again. Rum shots at 9:30? Of course! Bought some more rum to take home. Then we went to see Pierre Beauperthuy at The Old House between Paradise View and French Quarter. Wow, what a wealth of information and history he has! He put all four of us to shame with his knowledge of American history. Lots of stories – I’m not sure how many were real and how many were imagined, but a fun time nonetheless. He did have an interesting picture of the Concorde when it visited St. Martin hanging on his wall which I snapped a photo of.



After a tour of Pierre’s plantation house, we headed back to the villa where we had a very small lunch, then kayaked over to Pinel thanks to the provided kayaks courtesy of the villa owner. Took us about 10 mins to kayak over. We spent the afternoon on Pinel relaxing in the calm crystal clear water.



We had one appetizer plate and four drinks at Karibuni for $80. Now I remembered why we didn’t eat a full lunch here. Good, but terribly overpriced. Luckily we brought a cooler of our own Caribs with us on the kayak. Dinner tonight was at Talk of the Town in Grand Case.



It’s a close tie between Talk of the Town and Sky’s the Limit, but I think the slight edge goes to Talk of the Town. However, I must say Elvis from Sky’s the Limit met us that night on the street, remembered us clearly, and asked us to dine with him again and he was a total gentleman even when we told him we were going to eat at Talk of the Town. “Gotta mix it up! No problem! Enjoy,” he said. I was very impressed because I really expected him to try to convince us why his restaurant was better. After that we drove over to Simpson Bay to visit The Carousel for some great gelato.



May 16 – By now I was a breakfast pro – eggs, bacon, croissants from Le Moulin in Grande Case, and coffee. (Excellent bakery by the way, we stopped here twice during our stay to get croissants and baguettes). After breakfast, we headed to Marigot and visited a Haitian art gallery located at the marina. Then it was off to Friar’s Bay to meet the legendary Ruby Bute and see her gallery.



What a great experience! We made it to her home which is next door to her gallery around 11:30 and she said she was eating breakfast and to wait a few minutes. We patiently waited under her lovely gazebo by the enormous cotton tree in her yard, which is the subject of many of her works.



We toured her gallery, bought several of her prints (which I am already working on framing and hanging here in the house), and then she invited us back to her house. We were the only people visiting that morning and she served us all a homemade rum liqueur flavored with coconut milk. It was delicious but we made her laugh because we all took it as a shot! “You were supposed to sip and chat! Sip and chat! That ain’t for shooting!” We all laughed and had a good time and we shared details about our lives back home and she did the same. Ruby is a very talented woman and we were also lucky enough to have her read her poetry, which was beautiful. Ruby said for us to add her to Facebook, which I think is great she keeps in touch using it. She flattered the four of us by telling us the world would be better if there were more young gentle men like us. And she was sure to separate gentle and men. She told us we inspired her to write a poem. If she writes a poem about the gentle men who drank the rum too fast, you will know who she is talking about. It was a great time and I hope to see Ruby again in the future. After our wonderful visit with Ruby, we went back to Orient for the afternoon, and the last Happy Hour of the trip. How did 9 days come to an end so quickly? Still one more half day to go. After Orient we got ready for yet another highlight of our trip. The day before we had invited Bernadine to dinner with us at Le Tastevin in Grand Case. We picked her up, and she was stunning, we all definitely felt underdressed! We had a lovely dinner with her and we made a donation to support her work rescuing animals. She had a great time and I am glad we got to know her so well; she is a wonderful person.









After taking Bernadine back, she treated us all to…. You guessed it! Rum shots! But this time it was the Republic Rum, which she only reserves for special occasions. We were all sitting out at Paradise View under the stars sipping on the rum, taking in the beauty of one last night in paradise. After bidding farewell to Bernadine, promising to return, we made our way back to the place we called home for 8 nights. Unfortunately it was time to pack, as we wanted one last beach trip the following morning.

May 17 – Up early today, the last breakfast. We were packed and ready, and on Orient Beach one last time at 8 AM. We stayed till around 10:30 and there was still hardly anyone there. No one even came to collect money for the chairs. We bid our favorite beach so long until next time, and we went back to the villa to meet the villa manager and said our goodbyes. We made our way back to the airport, and stopped at Zee Best bakeshop, which had the best tasting food of any bakery I tried! I got some almond croissants, chocolate almond croissants, and ham and cheese croissants for all of us for the flight home. I made quite a few people jealous when they were being served a 1 oz bag of almonds and I was eating a fresh almond croissant. Dropping off the rental car made me a little nervous, as Michael wasn’t there at the airport and told me just to leave the car in the visitor lot with the key locked in the glovebox. However I am assuming he got his car back as I haven’t heard from him. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" /> The flight left right on time, and we had a lovely flight attendant who kept things interesting and encouraged people to take their seats so we would beat the other 5 international flights landing at the same time in Charlotte! We did beat them and were the first to arrive – immigration was a short wait – less than 15-20 mins. I was nervous because one of our friends had a connection in Charlotte and I was afraid he was going to miss it. He made it to the gate an hour early! We drove the 3 and a half hours home from Charlotte and it was back to reality.

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How did it go by so quickly? I don’t know, but it did. But this time, our second trip to this wonderful island, was different. The beaches were the same, the most beautiful I have ever seen. But we discovered something different this time. This time we dove head first into the culture of the island. We got out and explored – the good and the bad. We weren’t afraid to get out and enjoy the island, with due caution of course. But what really made the trip special to us were the people. Generous sincere people like Bernadine, people like Ruby with her hospitality, Pierre with his stories, Elvis with his kindness, the gentleness of Tito at the Butterfly Farm, our lovely villa manager Bénédicte, the lady at the Crepe stand with the smile on her face, the friendly man giving us directions to Ruby Bute’s we met beside the road, and the charming woman at Le Moulin. As my partner Ian said, “Last year I really liked the island, but this year I fell in love with it.” It really is the Friendly Island, and I can’t wait to return.

Dustin