TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Republique Francaise airplane

Is that giant plane parked at airport the French Prime Ministers?

Correct with the President also.

Cool plane!

First time I've ever seen a jet there.

bonjour Macron.

Any pictures?

BeachKitten, it's still sitting there. The Mahobeachcam is focused on it. Don't know when he leaves. Sorry about the fauxpas calling him Prime Minister.

Published reports have him staying in St Martin tonight, and moving on to St Barth sometime on Sunday.

Good grief! So you called him the Prime Minister instead of the President?? And you have to be corrected?? Some posters on this forum have a knack for correcting everyone, they believe it's their responsibility. Never apologize. We are all only human...……………..

Prime Minister Trump and President Trudeau agree with you.

That sounds like wishful thinking !😆

Typically, there are 2 planes. An advance team arrives before the actual plane carrying the president. Back in May of 2015, I arrived a couple of hours before Francois Hollande arrived to visit St Martin. A Republique Francaise was already parked at the airport. A picture of the advance plane is here.

Did it give me away that I'm Canadian?🤔

So does your bio.

He is staying at Esmeralda. There is security at both entrances to Orient. We got a sticker for our car to get through without an issue,

Was behind him coming out of Orient Bay about an hour ago, back to the plane.

Story in the Daily Herald

Apparently the French President's plane actually landed at Grand Case Airport

Based on the article it seems that President Macron agrees with many posters in the slow rebuilding on the French side. Hopefully he will realize that they need to help the businesses and hotels rebuild so that tourists will come back and be more apt to go to the French side.

As my trip report showed, I am a newbie to staying on the island. It appeared to me that the Dutch side is recovering at a much faster pace and is trying to attract the tourists.

When we drove over the causeway and headed to Orient Beach the drive reminded me of going through the slums of NY. That may put a negative outlook on many tourists that are not used to seeing a congested impoverished area. My wife even pointed out that if the government doesn't infuse some money into the area, the business will suffer drastically.

I hope that President Macron was able to see that the snail's pace of recovery in comparison to their Dutch side neighbor is not helping the people of the island.

No , not correct . The big plane landed on the Dutch side and the smaller jet landed in Grand Case.

The plane carrying the PRESIDENT landed at Grand Case, according to the article. The other plane carried press and support personnel. From the article.. "....The President’s 24-hour visit in St. Martin began Saturday afternoon with arrival at Grand Case Airport. The accompanying national press corps had meanwhile arrived separately at Princess Juliana Airport. "

Okay I made an error , because I did see the big plane landing at the Airport around noon time.

No problem.

Why does this photo show both planes landing at Princess Juliana Airport? Can't be right.

Both planes were there at the same time for a short time the other day. Maybe the smaller plane had to drop off or pick up something from the bigger plane? I watched them take off on the maho beach cam

Here is a pic of French President Emmanuel Macron landing on St.Barts by helicopter...

http://www.epa.eu/politics-photos/g...l-macron-visits-st-barts-photos-54667529

And then there were the 3 helicopters betweeen St Martin and St Barth. The President travelled on a large military helicopter, there was a smaller helicopter which appeared to be for medical support, and a smaller military/Gendarme helicopter.