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Laura

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July 2, 2015

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Saint Martin day 4: Happy Bay Beach and an afternoon alone

On Tuesday we woke up and headed to the secluded Happy Bay Beach, accessed by Friars beach. When we arrived we were almost alone as we walked to the end of friars beach.

Happy beach was very secluded and only populated by a nude couple when we arrived. Don’t worry, I didn’t take any photos of them.

There was a bit of snorkeling along the edge of the bay, but the current was strong and the water murky.

Apparently there used to be a food stand on this secluded beach.

Around lunch time we packed up and headed back to Grand Case for Carl’s scuba trip and my plans to lay on the beach and get a massage.

First I dropped Carl off at octopus diving.

Then I walked down the main beach in grand case until I settled in at a beach club for some relaxation, reading, and guavaberry cocktails.

After a massage, I met back up with Carl and we headed back to Orient Bay. On the way we stopped at Bacchus for good bottles of wine, French cheese, and a fresh baguette. We spent the evening on our porch enjoying those things.

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Laura

Posted on

July 2, 2015

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Travel

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Saint Martin day 3: Philipsburg and little bay beach

On Monday we started with a walking tour of the cruise ship port, Philipsburg, which is on the Dutch side of the island. It has an old courthouse on Wathey Square. It is the shopping capital of Saint Martin and a bit overwhelming.

We started on the boardwalk and enjoyed a view of the lovely blue water.

We stopped at Wathey Square and the pier for some photos.

Saw some great examples of caribbeann architecture including this church:

The shopping was nonstop on front and back streets:

We stopped in the Guavaberry Rum store for some samples and purchases.

We had lunch on the boardwalk at Taloula Mangos and started with Guavaberry coladas. Look how pink!

After lunch it was time for beach lounging at little bay beach, accessed from the Divi beach hotel.

The beach was lovely. The snorkeling was OK.

After our afternoon of lounging and snorkeling we headed back to the French side of the island to go back to our apartment and stopped at the monument commemorating the friendship of the two sides of the island.

For dinner we headed to Grand Case, the culinary capital of the Caribbean. After perusing the menus along the main avenue, we settled on Le Cottage.

We first had a delicious amuse bouche of sweet potato, carrots, and ginger chilled soup. omg, so good! Carl ordered the creole seafood tasting and I had soup and an eggplant dish.

The first plate that came out as part of Carl’s tasting menu was cod fritters with sweet and spicy sauce. I neglected to get a photo of that plate. The second plate was fried white and black sausage with a side of fruit slaw.

My first plate was French onion soup, because, you know, I love that stuff. Just look at that presentation!

Then, the magic happened. Carl got a crazy tasting plate with a number of seafood items that he actually enjoyed! It was awesome.

Here he is eating some raw fish on a toast!

I got my eggplant dish at the same time, beautifully plated.

We closed with bananas flambé, which I was so excited about that I didn’t take a photo. It was delicious. And we got the traditional shot of house infused rum at the end of the meal. Carl said his food was great, and so was mine. Nothing to jump up and down about, but still very good.

Posted by

Laura

Posted on

July 1, 2015

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Travel

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Saint Martin vacation days 1 & 2

Arrival Day

Lots of flying but we made it. Crazy airport, of course, and slightly scary driving.

After finding our cute little apartment on Orient Bay, we hit the market for some essentials (like wine) and then had dinner at Le Piment, a short walk from our apartment. The salads and pizza were amazing. Check out the plating on Carl’s Salad!

Day 2: Sunday driving tour

On Sunday we woke up early and took a stroll down Orient Beach, which is about 100 yards from our apartment. Unfortunately, this is the time of year where high winds blow in off the Atlantic so the surf on our beach is quite rough. The walk was nice, we saw the other place we considered staying and are glad we picked this apartment. We also found the nude beach. Yep. People were walking on it. Nude (older) people.

View of Orient beach from the north end, after hiking up the hill a bit:

After deciding that it was too windy to stay at our beach, we took a driving tour of the island. The first stop was at the north end of the island, Anse Marcel. We quickly learned that driving on Saint Martin is scary, with very narrow and extremely hilly roads. It didn’t help that our rental car has no power and is laughable trying to make it up the really steep sections.

Anse Marcel is a little sheltered beach, with only a few hotels. The water was calm and gorgeous:

Our next stop was Grand Case, the culinary capital of Saint Martin. We walked the length of the town and then had lunch at Talk of the Town, a “lolo” which is a street side stand supposedly, but seemed like a restaurant to us. I had some rum punch ( of course) and a whole smoked red snapper. Head and all. It was amazing!

Carl and our drinks:

My whole red snapper:

The beach at Grand Case:

We then headed to Marigot, but just drove through because the tourist office was closed.

Our next stop was Baie Rouge, an amazing beach that we will definitely return to lounge and snorkel.

We next looped around by Mullet Beach and Simpson Beach, but parking near both was overflowing so we didn’t stop. However, we were able to stop at Little Bay Beach, where I took my first iguana photo. The beach itself was very nice so we decided to come back.

We entered the beach through a hotel. The flags show you the wind:

And in Philipsburg we ran into the PwC building!

Our last stop was at Dawn beach, but we basically walked out, turned around and walked back to the car. We then returned back to our apartment and rested up for dinner.

There are a number of interesting restaurants right down near the beach where we’re staying so we opted to go there for dinner. We ended up at Cote Plages, a French restaurant. Everything is so wonderfully plated here, but I neglected to get a photo of the starter, which was a mushroom and spinach pie with a salad and cold soup.

Carl had a duck shepherds pie for his entree and I had a creole mahi mahi dish. We finished with a dessert called pineapple carpaccio, which we came to realize later is quite common here. All of my dinner photos aren’t high quality because I used my phone. Flash photography with my Canon DSLR in a restaurant is beyond my skills.

Creole mahi mahi (Good flavor, but not enough spice and the fish was a bit overdone):

Carl’s Shepherd Pie with duck – he says it was good:

Pineapple carpaccio:

We also learned that its customary for restaurants to give you a digestif of house infused rum to finish your meal. This place gave us passion fruit and strawberry, and passion fruit was the clear winner.

I made friends with the restaurant cat, giving her little bits of my fish.

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Monthly Archives: July 2015

Saint Martin day 4: Happy Bay Beach and an afternoon alone

Saint Martin day 3: Philipsburg and little bay beach

Saint Martin vacation days 1 & 2

Arrival Day

Day 2: Sunday driving tour