We had a wonderful week on the island from Nov. 4, to 11, which went by far too quickly.

We arrived on the 4th at 8:40 p.m., got to use the jet way were through immigration quickly and waited for our bags just as long as in the old terminal. The airport is spacious and of a steel and glass construction like any new airport anywhere in the world I know of. I know the people of St. Martin are quite proud of their airport. For purely nostalgic reasons we preferred the old one.

Marius was waiting for us, walked with us across the street to the parking lot and we were off to Esmeralda. At that time of night traffic was no problem through Simpson Bay or Marigot.

After checking in we went for a quick dinner to La Chapelle in Orient Village. I had a wonderful steak tartare with fries. At 9 Euros this was a bargain. After a few drinks and an Espresso we ordered 2 Cognacs and I asked for Remy Martin (mainly because it has a distinctive taste and I know if I get cheated or not).

The waiter was a very pleasant young French guy and in his accented English he told me:

“Sir, I am French. We French take great pride in three things. One is our wine, the other is our cognac and the third is our cheese.”

By that time I had to laugh and he told me that Hennessy was horrible, the Remy Martin XO was quite good but if we wanted to try a real good cognac we should try a Camus.

The young man was right, it was a very smooth and pleasant drink and we decided we would get a bottle on our annual trip to Philipsburg.

Well Tuesday was our scheduled Philipsburg day. We tried all kinds of shops but no Camus.

The second point on our agenda was a little souvenir bracelet, bangle kind of thingy for our son’s girlfriend. We don’t want to buy the girl and we don’t want to appear overbearing. It had to be cheap.

That was not easy until we dropped into Cannegie for our Camus search and some tobacco. The lady in there was absolutely wonderful. Not only did she make a little note about the Camus in her book, she also pointed us in the right direction for our little silver bracelet. We will make sure to visit Cannegie again next April.

Wednesday was of course market day in Marigot and after buying a few spices the search for the elusive Camus was back on. I remembered a little side street off Charles de Gaulle with a rare wine store in it.

So in we went and told the lady our little waiter story. She said she knew of Camus, didn’t have any and then proceeded to bring out some tasting glasses and a few bottles of Cognac.

That was not a good idea. Aside from a cup of coffee I never have any breakfast. I mentioned this to the lady and she basically told me not to worry she does it all the time. We tried a few and half-corked decided on a lovely bottle of Frapin XO. I guess it’s easy to sell a couple of drunks a bottle of booze. Well, I still didn’t have my Camus. So she finally gave me the name of a store opposite Haagen Daz at Marina Royal. There we finally found a bottle. 200 Euros later we finally have 2 bottles of Cognac which we might or might never open.

That night we went back to La Chapelle, mainly to confirm our choice of Cognac. There we had 2 excellent steak specials. While we waited for our dinner we overheard a different waiter with the following recommendation. I’ll try to keep this as “g” - rated as possible.

“It’s f***ing beautiful! It’s just an expression but it’s f***ing beautiful, that’s just an expression.”

My hearing not being the best, I turned to my wife and looked at her. She looked at me and confirmed that I still hear the good stuff perfectly well. Apparently the waiter recommended a certain bottle of wine.

We didn’t have a bad meal on the island. Ate at L’Alabama, Il Nettuno, Le Tastevin, Bistro Caraibe, Taichi and La Chapelle for dinner and Coco, Waikiki, La Playa and Passangrahan for lunch. Would not hesitate to recommend anyone of them.

Finally, after an 1 ½ hour trip we managed to drop by the TTOL party on the 6th. Our special thanks to dcarol for setting it up. It was nice to get to know a few faces. Because of the traffic situation we chickened out a little early.

Can’t wait for our next trip in April.


Bernd