So today we schlepped off to St Martins, braved the holiday crowd at JFK and despite skimming the water for an awfully long time before I sighted land, manged to settle on the tarmac safely, retrieve our luggage and grab our hire car.
Initial hiccups included the fact that the pre-determined vehicle had totally bald tires and required some small amount of time to persuade the AVIS chappies that that would not do at all....we set off!
All very well said and done if you have a map that bears any semblance to the road work ridden roads that appear to be quite "sans" labels and "sans" signs....unless you include the ones to the beaches.
Anyway..eventually we found our hotel, threw down the bags and headed to the beach! What Bliss! Sunny, balmy and wonderfully warm clear blue water.
We are staying on the French side of the island and I must confess it's been some considerable amount of time since I have had to "parlez vous francais"!
Twenty five years ago I lived and worked in Switzerland, speaking French to the point where I could eat, sleep work and dream in the language but today was the first time in a long while that I've had to dredge back into the mental closet and dig out forgotten phrases, verb conjugations and the odd bit of slang - and surprised myself somewhat at how easy it was to slip back into it all.
Not sure what will happen tomorrow as we go exploring, the other half of the Island speaks Dutch and there...well I am totally lost!
**swoons** More photos please and thank you!
Posted by: deborah | July 03, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Did you go to Orient Beach? My lips are sealed...
Posted by: Don Madden | July 04, 2009 at 07:45 PM
errrr.......I forgot your address on St. Martin.
I am SO wanting to be there. Have a great time!
Posted by: Karen Cole | July 06, 2009 at 03:24 PM