TundraCat’s St. Martin trip report, June 27-July 5 2009

Well, it’s taken me a while to compile this report of another wonderful vacation in St. Martin. I hope it’s helpful to those of you trying to plan a first trip, as well as those of you who just need another “dose” of the island to tide you over until you can return.

[color:"blue"]Flights[/color]: Absolutely uneventful, and that’s how we like it. We flew USAir from MSP, via Charlotte. All flights were on time or early, crews were pleasant and helpful, and passengers were well behaved. What more could we hope for? We traveled light, did not check bags, and had no difficulty finding space in the overheads for our small carry-ons.
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Overnight in Charlotte[/color]: We spent the night in Charlotte both directions. While it’s possible to book MSP-CLT-SXM or the return in one day, connections times are closer than we’re comfortable with, so we’d rather just plan to spend a night. As we have on previous trips, we stayed at the La Quinta Charlotte Airport South. We like it. It’s clean, friendly, affordable, has a shuttle to/from the airport, and is right next door to the Embassy Suites, which has an Omaha Steak House where we can get a casual meal in the bar, or a somewhat bigger meal in the restaurant. (By the way, even though we like this combo a lot, I’d love to hear about other places TTOLers like to stay when they overnight in Charlotte, particularly if there’s a bar/restaurant nearby.)

[color:"blue"]Experiences at immigration[/color]: I know that others have experienced slow moving lines and cranky personnel going through SXM immigration, but I guess we’ve always been lucky, and once again we pretty much breezed through, even though it was Saturday afternoon.

Heading home, we got to the airport almost 3 hours ahead of our flight, since I’d read about some VERY slow passport control lines at SXM, but we got through security quite quickly, giving us time to cool our heels at the gate. Immigration at CLT was also fairly quick. I continue to be amazed at the people who somehow feel that the “no phones, no cameras, no electronic devices” rule while clearing customs/immigration doesn’t apply to them. We saw several people chatting away or checking messages on their devices, only to look surprised (or even annoyed!) when told by officials to put them away.

[color:"blue"]Car and phone rental[/color]: We happily rented our car from Lesley Bruce/Kenny Car Rental again. Lesley’s stellar service and great attitude far outshine the three other agencies we’ve used in the past. Lesley met us at the airport with the car and the cell phone we’d rented from Sharon. Paperwork took maybe 2 minutes, and we were on our way. Thanks, Lesley! We rent the phone mostly so my elderly parents can get a hold of us in case of an emergency, and the $23 investment (8 day rental plus $5 in outgoing call time we chose to put on it) was well worth the peace of mind it bought.
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Traffic[/color]: We encountered absolutely no bad traffic. I was worried about getting from the airport to Grand Case through both Cole Bay and Marigot on a Saturday afternoon, but it turned out not to be an issue, in fact I think this was the fastest we’ve ever gotten through that route. The detour through Cole Bay is the same “back” route we’ve always taken, past the Heineken warehouse. It did seem like they might have filled in some of the worst potholes on that road, which was nice. After getting to Grand Case, the only place we drove was back and forth to Orient, so we didn’t have to deal with the jam up around the Midas/IFH roundabout. Our drive back to the airport was Sunday morning, and there was almost no traffic at all.

[color:"blue"]Lodging[/color]: We again rented the 2 BR beachfront apartment over La California Restaurant in Grand Case. We love the location (within walking distance of numerous fabulous restaurants), and the balcony with a view of the bay and Anguilla. The apartment is clean, quiet, air conditioned and all in all perfect for us. It’s advertised as having free WiFi; the reality, though, is that the hub is downstairs in the restaurant near the street, so in this particular apartment the signal is weak and unreliable. (When we rented the 1 BR beachfront apartment, last winter, the WiFi was fine.) We found that if we sat on the floor by the door to the apartment, we could sometimes get an okay signal. When the restaurant was open, it was fine with them if we went downstairs and sat in their boutique area, where the signal was good. One of the benefits of renting these apartments is that the owner, Zuzu, has arranged for off-street parking in the gated lot across the street (next to La Noche). While the off-street parking is nice to have in low season, I suspect it is a huge plus during high season, when parking in Grand Case becomes nightmarish.

[color:"blue"]Beach[/color]: We spent all of our beach time at Club Orient. As others have remarked, the smooth, unbroken pavement on the road into Club Orient/La Gallion Beach is indeed startling! We really enjoy the social atmosphere near the Perch. It is fun to reconnect with folks we’ve met previous years, and to meet new friends. The usual disclaimer applies—I’m sure I’m forgetting someone—but we had a great time getting to know (or getting to know better) Debbie, Rick, Nick, Kathy (Cathy?), Joanne, Richard, Larry, Gretchen, Becky, Jim and others. I was glad to meet Sue (LovesBeaches), and Mark G., both of whom I “knew” of from their TTOL postings. Our days were low key, reading, dozing, chatting, and cooling off in the water. The water was clear and delightful, with schools of fish swimming around us, even quite near shore. This may have something to do with the guy who walks along in the water most days, crumbling bread and feeding the fish. He manages to gather a pretty impressive collection of fish around him! We finally managed to get motivated enough to walk out and around the point past the water sports building. Shoes are a must out there, but the rock formations were interesting, very porous. Is it volcanic, weathered coral, or something else, anybody know?
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Fourth of July[/color]: what can I say, it’s a real a hoot. The body adornments (beads, body painting, tattoos, wigs and more), the jello shots, the noisemakers, the flags, the singing, the parade down Orient Beach around the rocks and back to Baywatch—well, it’s definitely a special event! I heard someone say that this was a record year for parade participant numbers, but I don’t know what the “official” (ie, around the rocks) head count was.

[color:"blue"]Lunches[/color] (all on Orient): We have been passionate devotees of [color:"red"]Kokomarina[/color], and have eaten the majority of our lunches there in the past few years, so the fact that they were closed for renovations while we were there meant we had to explore new options. Just after we returned someone posted that the restaurant has been sold and is now called Aloha. While the food at Kokomarina was great (particular favorites were the grouper in lime butter, the kebabs, and the goat cheese burger), it was Koko and Marina’s friendly, personable service that really kept us coming back. We wish the folks at Aloha well (with the same chef as was there when it was Kokomarina, the food should continue to be lovely), and are glad to hear that Koko and Marina will be opening a new restaurant on Orient Beach later in the year. We’re also glad we bought Kokomarina tee shirts on our last visit.

So, we tried a couple of new (to us) places for lunches.
[color:"red"]Orange Fever[/color] is a relatively new restaurant, just a few doors down from Baywatch. They make delicious pizzas, thin and not overloaded with ingredients, and their salads (Nicoise, Caesar, etc) and burgers were good, too. We heard several people ordering pizzas “to go” mid-afternoon, with the intention of taking them home and reheating them for dinner (yum!)

We enjoyed several lunches at [color:"red"]Le String[/color], including burgers, calamari, salad and a delicious special of boneless chicken breast in cream/shallot sauce. Nice people working there. These folks offer a rum jumbie shot after the meal, which we enjoyed.

One day we opted for ham and cheese paninis at [color:"red"]Brice Paradise[/color]; they were fine, but not particularly noteworthy. Service at Brice Paradise seemed distracted and a bit lackadaisical.


[color:"blue"]Dinners[/color] (all in Grand Case): One of the reasons we like to lodge in Grand Case is that we have our choice of great dinner options within walking distance. That means we don’t have to worry about driving the narrow winding roads after dark, and we don’t have to worry about having a bottle of wine with dinner. Great food is one of my favorite things. Living in small town Minnesota, we don’t get a whole lot of opportunities to eat well unless we cook at home, so we try to take maximum advantage of what St. Martin has to offer. Feel free to skip this part if detailed meal descriptions bore you…

Although the competition is fierce and it’s a close call, our favorite restaurant in Grand Case is probably [color:"red"]L'Escapade[/color]. It’s on the water, and we have always been able to stop by in the afternoon and reserve a waterside table for that same evening. (Note: that probably isn’t an option in high season. That’s one of the reasons we prefer to visit St. Martin in low-season!) We ate two lovely dinners here this trip. The lobster ravioli here is fabulous—served in a frothy lobster bisque. We share a single order, to make sure we have plenty of room for our main plates. Mains this time included scallops with bacon on spinach risotto, a chicken breast with sautéed foie gras (a special), Mediterranean-influenced lamb with eggplant and a delicious, slightly sweet and spicy hummus, and chicken with oyster mushrooms over garlic mashed potatoes. There was a new (to us, at least) sommelier there. I didn’t catch his name, but he was young, charming and we really enjoyed the wines he recommended to accompany our meals. Overall, both the kitchen (fabulous food and eyecatching presentation) and front-of-house staff (friendly and engaging) do a wonderful job here. With a few cocktails, wine, sparkling water but no dessert, dinners here were between 125E ($170) and 156E ($210) for the two of us.

Dinner at [color:"red"]L'Auberge Gourmande[/color] was very good. To be honest, I can’t recall what my husband had, and we seem to have lost our receipt. But my beef tenderloin with red wine/shallot sauce was delicious. The plate was augmented with several delicious and creatively prepared vegetables, including an artichoke heart and a stuffed tomato.

We hadn’t been to [color:"red"]Brasserie des Iles[/color] before, but were in the mood for a casual, low-key meal, so we gave it a try. We liked it. We shared a pizza, a salad, and a bottle of Provencal rosé. All were good but not particularly memorable. As reported by others, this definitely is the “in” place for the gendarmes to eat, we saw easily a dozen or so gendarmes while we were there. Service was friendly, although not terribly efficient. We appreciated the gratis flavored rum after dinner.

We had a nice yet low-key dinner at [color:"red"]Bistrot Caraibes[/color]. They have recently renovated the dining room (last winter, I think) and it’s a lovely, serene space with clean lines and muted colors. We were seated next to a neat stone accent panel set into the wall, which added appealing texture to the décor. We weren’t all that hungry, so we skipped appetizers. I opted for the duck breast in honey sauce, which was nicely flavored with warm spices (nutmeg, ginger, etc). My husband enjoyed the chicken breast with mushroom risotto. Both plates were beautifully presented. With one cocktail, a bottle of wine and a large bottle of sparkling water, the bill came to 86E/$116.

[color:"red"]La Marine[/color] was another new restaurant for us, and we liked it a whole lot. It’s waterside on the main street of Grand Case, but in the quieter section past La California. We seemed to be the only ones in the place not speaking French, and the staff seemed to know many of the patrons, so we got the sense that it is a favorite of locals. We walked in without reservations on a Tuesday night, and were able to be seated seaside. The restaurant is quiet, airy and comfortable, and the view of Anguilla was an added treat. Service was flawless and the food was spectacular. We shared the housemade terrine of foie gras, which was a good idea, since the serving size was extremely generous and neither of us could imagine finishing it on our own. (Well, actually, that’s not true, I could happily have eaten the whole thing, but then I wouldn’t have had room for the delicious main course that followed…) I had fresh bar (French sea bass), deboned and topped with a spinach and herb mousseline. It was served with sautéed fennel and celery in a cream sauce, which isn’t a combination I would have thought of, but it was scrumptious. My husband had a lovely rendition of chicken Milanese, served with tiny pearl onions in a lemon/caper sauce. It came with a side of gnocchi, with just enough basil in the sauce to be delicious but not overpowering. With one cocktail and an inexpensive yet tasty white wine from SW France, total bill was 84E/$101. This restaurant definitely goes onto our "must visit" list.

We enjoyed our dinner at [color:"red"]Le Cottage[/color]. We love that the friendly staff seems to remember us from previous visits. We stopped by the restaurant the day before to reserve our favorite table, facing the street just beside the entrance; although the muffler-less scooters are annoying, we enjoy watching the parade of people on the street. We started with a riff on tuna sushi (rolled in a crisp sheet of phyllo and served with wasabi and ginger) and a shrimp special, in which the shrimp were wrapped in shredded kadaif (crispy pastry, almost like tiny pastry noodles.) We stayed with the seafood theme, enjoying the sea bass with lemongrass sauce in transparent “papillotte” and the thyme-roasted cod with foie gras, small potatoes and a tempura vegetable kebab. Portions were large both for appetizers and mains, and by this time we were quite full. Alas, although we’re not often dessert eaters, having watched people ooh and aah and swoon over the soufflés on previous visits, we had already ordered the chocolate version. So, we took a deep breath and I’m pleased to report that we managed to give it the attention and respect it deserved! All in all, with a few cocktails and a bottle of wine, the bill was 146E/$190.

[color:"red"]Spiga[/color] is another favorite. We dined on the porch, so were able to enjoy the evening breeze. My butternut squash and leek soup (with a goat cheese ravioli) was delicious. Although the meat and seafood portion of the menu is always very tempting, we are always seduced by the opportunity to savor freshly housemade pasta. This time was no exception, and we thoroughly enjoyed the meat filled ravioli with Bolognese sauce and the tagliatelle with braised lamb and tiny olives. Both portions were generous. When we asked our server how people possibly manage to eat both a pasta and an additional entrée, she disclosed that the pastas are available in a smaller portion if it will be followed by another plate. Aha! So perhaps next time we can finally explore the second half of the menu. We generally find the service at Spiga to be efficient and proper but also a bit somber. For whatever reason, on this visit both Lara and our server (a tiny slender woman whose name I don’t know) seemed more relaxed, and we were pleased to exchange a bit of chit-chat and even some smiles. With one cocktail, a bottle of sparkling water, and a delicious and reasonably priced bottle of Sassoregale Lamole, the bill was 90E/$90.

There are two Grand Case restaurants that I’m looking forward to trying next time we visit. The first is L’Estimanet, which has gotten some really rave reviews, so I was disappointed that they were closed for vacation while we were there. We also talked with a pair who will be opening a new restaurant in the old L’Alabama location. I’ll leave it at that, since I’m not sure how far along they are in publicizing their plans.