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St Maarten/St Martin
31 May 2004 Newsletter
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ISLAND
NEWS
Weather and
Beaches: Richard Scott at Cliffhanger
Bar above Cupecoy Beach says that after three weeks of terrible
weather; terrible weather, if you're on holiday but great if you are tired of
the sun... it got hot again....the last few days have been in the high
80's low 90's with very little wind.........the sea is a lovely 77
degrees and sky blue.....the beach in front of bar is starting to shrink with
about 10 people a day still enjoying one of St Maarten's most beautiful
beaches......great for relaxing with the bar doing lunch specials as well as our
famous cocktails.......hope to see you all down soon. Veronique from Antoine Restaurant confirms
that it has been raining over in Pburg and Elisa from Bikini Beach on
Orient says that it rained for two weeks straight. It's not surprising that
it has been raining all over the island, as it has been raining all over
the Caribbean, with disastrous mudslides in the Dominican Republic. Elisa
further says that now it is now ungodly hot and everything is green and
overgrown. She has a few events going in the near future:
The Laser Cup Party
Saturday night 5 of June - dinner and musicSalsa Night with Henry Knowles
5-9pm - 20 June"Fly to Red Bull King of the Air" Kitesurf Competition, Youth
Waves Band live and dinner 7pm till ??? on 26 June
Turtles and whales: Good news, Betty at the
Horny Toad
Guesthouse reports that the first leatherback sea turtle of
the season deposited her clutch of 150-175 eggs on Simpson Bay Beach a few
hundred yards from her guesthouse in the early morning on 24 May. Bad news, a
stranded 10-foot, 700-pound pilot whale apparently got separated from its pod
and died in Orient Bay despite great efforts from volunteers.
Carnival: There are lots of photos from the
Dutch side carnival parade that marched down Front Street past
Escargot at the end of
April.
Photo feature: There are some new SXM
photos at a secret location not posted here.
Subscribe to the newsletter to get the location. There are some flora shots in Philipsburg and a couple long shots of
Philipsburg, waterfront and pondfront.
Animals R Friends: This foundation looks
after animals on the island and could use your help. Check out their new
website.
CONTEST
Vacation Suites at Oyster Pond is sponsoring
the current contest, which will run until 30 June. Just click
their name to go to their website, find the link
to sign up for the SXM-Info newsletter, click it, sign up, and you are
entered. Obviously everybody that is getting this email is already signed
up for the newsletter, but you are not automatically signed up for the contest.
You do have to go to their website and click the email link to show you visited
their site. Just tell me you are already on our mailing list, and I'll leave you
signed up for the newsletter and just add your name to the contest list.
The prize: 1 free week over the summer! You have to go
to the Vacation Suites website and
find the contest signup link. It's not on the first page. So look
around, and if you win, be prepared to take a vacation before 15
November.
Here is the list of future sponsors.
We urge you all to sign up ONCE for each contest. Our clients want you to see
what they have to offer. Go to their websites at the appropriate time, click the
link, and you could be a winner. Look for future gift certificates
from:
L'Auberge Gourmande - 1
July to 15 August - $100 off a meal for two
Sunset Café - 16 August to
30 September - $100 off a meal for two
Montmartre Restaurant - 1
October to 15 November - $100 off a meal for two
Sealine Charters -
16 November to 15 December
Chez Pat/Tropical Wave - 16 December to 6 January - $100 off a day at the beach:
food, drinks, chairs, windsurf lessons, etc
Escargot
Restaurant - 18 February to 4 March 2005
Hot
Tomatoes - 5 March to 26 March
2005
Celine Pub
Crawl - 25 April to 5 June 2005 - two tickets
on the Lagoon Pub Crawl
Hot
Tomatoes contest: The Hot
Tomatoes contest is over.
Brad and Tekki are looking over the entries and will pick a winner for
the two pizzas with a bottle of
red.
Not my contest, but: When Jeff
Berger's site reaches 750,000 visitors some time in the next several weeks,
he will give away two vacations in St. Maarten and numerous other prizes. One
vacation is a week at Summit Resort, and another is a four-night vacation at
Divi Little Bay (that goes to the 750,750th visitor). There are many
dinners at fine restaurants including
Spiga, L'Alabama, and
Turtle Pier's
famous lobster, a half day island hopping cruise in a 1200-hp Cigarette
boat, a Bentley limousine to take you to one of the dinners, and much more.
Details are on his St. Maarten
home page.
RESTAURANTS
On 17 May the
euro was at 1.188 and today it's at 1.218. Not much
happening, but it is now getting worse, rather than better. French side
restaurants with many costs in dollars and many American (or Canadian) clients
have been offering more favorable exchange rates. Some restaurants offer
a 1 to 1 exchange. We will no longer publish a list of them as it
is hard enough to keep track of them while we are on the island and impossible
from NY. Some restaurants have lowered their prices. As always,
know what the euro is worth, what the restaurateur is offering for an exchange,
and what the costs are on the menu. Finally, you are here to have fun and fine
food, not complex financial calculations, so don't worry about it too
much.
On Friday (7 May) we had
dinner at Spartaco on the hill above Cole Bay. We started with
the zucchini and tomato combo topped with mozzarella. It was quite nice with the
2000 Chianti Classico from Nippozanna ($35). I had the fresh pasta with lobster
and mushrooms in a tomato sauce and Martha had the red snapper in an artichoke
sauce. It was a quiet evening with a lovely breeze, a perfect evening for
relaxing on the porch of this refurbished plantation home. Good food, good
service, and valet parking.
On Saturday we went to Les Dunes on
the Marigot Marina. It is a lovely space at the far end of the marina, past
Chanteclair and the now-closed Jean DuPont. They serve northern African and
southern French food. Martha started with fresh oysters (it was a Friday, so
they are coming in fresh from France). They are not cheap at 12euro for six, but
good. I went with a baked goat cheese salad. We had started with two glasses of
champagne and Martha finished mine with the last of her oysters as I moved on to
Givry premier cru (28euro) for the salad. Givry is a Burgundy from the Chalonais
near Chalon-sur-Saone, south of the famous Burgundies from Beaune. It's a bit
lighter, but a premier cru has a bit more body, so it was a pretty good wine
with the strong flavors of baked goat cheese. It was wonderful with the quail on
a bed of spinach flavored with figs, raisins, and onions that Martha had and
even better with my duck breast with foie gras in Moroccan spices (featuring
cinnamon). Both dinners were priced at 22euro. The combinations sound strange
to our western experience, but they are quite good. Two aps, two wonderful main
courses, and a very nice bottle of wine for only 100euro or about $120. The
restaurant is owned by Georges from Belle
Epoque and his wife is usually managing Les Dunes while one of Georges'
best waiters has come over to wait on tables, so the service is good
also.
For our last night on the
island, we went to Montmartre, partially because it is close, but also
because it is good and the service is outstanding. This restaurant is owned by
Pascal Nemer who also owns L'Auberge Gourmande and Sunset Café in Grand Case.
His wife, Karen, is usually managing this outpost and Olivier and Arsene are two
of the finest waiters on the island. The kitchen turns out interesting food and
there is a very large wine list. We no longer have to order wine as both
waiters remember that we like the 97 Beaune Premier Cru Champs Pimont. We
started with the scallops wrapped in bacon, a classic combination, but still
very tasty. this one was part of a salad in a light vinaigrette with
tomatoes and asparagus. Our dinners were the duck leg confit and the tuna steak
in a sesame crust with a caper sauce and myriad of vegetables. The photos
on the website are making me hungry all over again.
And that ended another season on the island. We flew out the
next morning and got stranded in Chicago as tornadoes swept the
Midwest. The plane that was to take us to Albany never took
off from Springfield, MO. We (Martha, myself, and Princess Penobscat
Maine Coon Cat, aka Penny) spent the night in a Quality (I use the term loosely)
Inn near O'Hare and made it in the next day. More about traveling with animals
and 24 bottles of booze in the next newsletter.
BARGAINS
Our one bedroom condo will be
available for rent until we return in mid-December. Last year we replaced the
microwave with a new GE Advantium model and this year we replaced the
refrigerator and dishwasher. The unit was painted. New drapes were put in front
and back. All the upholstery was recovered and a new cover was put on the
king size bed. We rent it for $1000 per week and throw in a $50 voucher on a
dinner for two at Hot Tomatoes and a $50 coupon
to Ama Bella
Jewelers with any reservation. We include a special invitation to Vinissimo where you will get at
least 10% off and a few samples. Finally, Pascal, owner of Auberge Gourmande, Sunset Café, and Montmartre Restaurant, is offering a welcome
champagne cocktail and an afterdinner drink at one of his restaurants to any of
our renters. That's a net of about $850 for a sixth floor one bedroom unit. The
rest of May is lovely and our on-island friends tell us that June is calm and
quiet. July is largely taken already and August is when the French arrive for
their month's holiday, so the restaurants are all open. September is probably
the hottest and wettest month, so many restaurateurs close and take their
vacations. We have been here in October and November and loved it. By then the
restaurateurs are back and trying out new ideas. Go over to our website, check out the unit and its
fabulous views, check the calendar for availability, and send us an email if you
are interested.
Look on the SXM-Restaurants
website for a list of all restaurants that have coupons for some freebie. There
are several coupons there to make your vacation a bit cheaper. (www.SXM-Restaurants.com/coupons.html)
L'Esperance
Hotel (www.LesperanceHotel.com) in Philipsburg is bargain at $65 per night for a
1BR suite with a kitchen. It's not on the water, but they have a
pool.
Delfina
(www.SXM-Hotels.com/delfina) now charges $95 per night for a double and includes two breakfasts
and evening cocktails. They are in the Cupecoy area, not on the beach, but close
enough to walk and they have a pool. You also get a $50 coupon to Ama Jewelers with any
reservation.
California
(www.SXM-hotels.com/california has two
apartments for rent that are right on the water in Grand Case. The one
bedroom, sleeps four, is $550 and the two bedroom, sleeps six, maybe more,
is $900 for the week.