TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Trip report Monday and Tuesday

MONDAY
You already know the story of Monday, which is that we didn't leave Beachside and did nothing all day. The textbook definition of a perfect day.

Breakfast was a ham and cheese quiche from Zee Best, where we had stopped on Sunday. So far we haven't stopped at our favorite, Le Suciere, but hopefully that will happen.

The big excitement of the day was chasing around a gecko that ended up in the second bathroom, and chasing it out the door.


Lunch was bacon sandwiches. I could happily do absolutely nothing here for several days, so long as my supply of reading material and the wine don't give out!!!

Dinner was ribs, that we had bought, pre-seasoned at Carrefour. I guess we were so lazy we didn't even take pictures of the meals on Monday.

The weather continued fairly hazy, as it has been for most of the trip. Saba was visible on Saturday and Sunday, but not since then, which is no big deal.

Cruise ships, for the most part, seem to sit out front for a day or two, and then disappear at some point. This one was out front, on and off, for most of the past few days..

We haven't seen many rich men's toys, but this one came by..



Thus passeth another lovely day.

TUESDAY

Tuesday morning we had eggs and bacon for breakfast.

We had sort of planned on going over to Club O to the beach Tuesday morning, but got lazy and decided not to go. We found out later that the wind was HOWLING on Orient Tuesday morning, so it turns out that was serendipitous.

Around noon, we headed over to lunch with friends at Orange Fever. We decided to head up and over the hill to go to Orient, for a change. It is nice that they have got a flag flying on the flagpole on the hill now.



We noted there were about 4 ships at the dock, although I didn't get a pic.
.
We walked into Orange Fever

and our lunch companions immediately recognized us, Snorkeller here from TTOL, and his wife We spent an absolutely lovely two hours conversing and comparing notes. They are retired lawyers now, thanks to Covid, and we compared some professional notes, but mostly talked about SXM and travel in general. We had the inimitable waiter JT, who is quite the character, as others have said.

Since I am on a French Fry kick, I decided we HAD to have French Fries, so we shared a pizza and fries,



which is a weird combination, but we enjoyed it, along with a pinot grigio . We enjoyed the company even more, and just had a lovely couple hours. The French Fries were a solid 3.5 out of 5. JC was quite a hoot, but the company was the best part of the day!! :clapping;


As timing would have it, we arrived back 'home' at the time that Air France was pulling away from the terminal to take off.

After watching a couple of private jets land


, and a Cessa





..it was time for them to take off, which we got a treat, as they took off the 'wrong' way. Unfortunately, the light was wrong for the shot to come out great, but it was an unusual one that I don't normally get, nonetheless.


On Tuesday evening we finally saw Jules bakery, which we have not gotten to in the past. Soon come, hopefully.

We had read online that the steak night was Tuesday nights at Fat Tony's, and they have steel pan music so we decided to try it out. We arrived at 6:45 and the place was PACKED, no social distancing here. The meal was decent, too much food for me, actually,

but the steel pan music was nice. Around 7:30 or so, the crowd cleared out a lot (I assume most people came early, in order to guarantee a steak dinner), and it was a lot more comfortable. The owner was there. I don't think he is the original Fat Tony, as he's definitely NOT fat. Anyway, he tried to play the harmonica a bit, but in general was just walking around, making sure everyone was happy. I took some video with my phone, will see if we can figure out how to upload it somewhere at some point.

Thus endeth another successful day.

Glad you enjoyed Orange Fever. JC really is a great fun waiter. My wife had the pizza twice. Said it was one of the best crusts ever.

Another nice report, Carol. I've always liked Orange Fever. Pizza, fries & wine sound just about perfect, especially with friends.Thanks

I do not recall if we've eaten there before, but it was good. It was one of our best memories so far this trip, in good part because of the friends..

Everything seems to be going well.

Just in case, you are confused as what to order at Jules, try the Nutella pastry.
I think they called it a turnover this April.
They all are wonderful.
I especially love their coffee.

We never made it to Orient---next time for sure.

We did make it to GC and tried
TLC---very nice. Comfortable thick cushions on the chairs and good food.

Don't know if we'll get there or not, as we haven't even been to Le Suciere yet!!! It's all good.

I believe the owner at Fat Tony's is named Rick. And you are correct.....he is not the original owner. We had a nice conversation with him this past April and he seemed like a nice guy. I believe he bought it a few years ago.

He said Hi, but we did not engage him in conversation. He seems pretty hands on.

thx for all the pics and info.............

We certainly enjoyed the lunch with you and Eric. With regard to the food, my carpaccio de beouf was excellent and the wife enjoyed her burger, with lots of fries, of course. JC was the perfect waiter. After lunch, the wife and I tried out the beach chairs, which are well padded and very comfy.

Glad the rest of the day was pleasant for you!

I had their French Burger twice. Excellent both times. Escargot was outstanding too.

We all agree about JC, what a fun waiter. As to the pizza, it is a crackery crust, and while I normally prefer a different style , theirs is a great. If you go back, and they have the pineapple chicken salad, you should try it, it is excellent as well. Also, we are fans of the BBC's - and of course, the padded chairs.

Not sure if we will get back to Orient or not...

during our May trip i noticed that every time i saw the AIr France flight take off, which was quite a few times, it was the "wrong way"....only flight to do so....i'm sure AF has a reason they do it this way apparently regularly

I have seen them take off a couple of times, the 'right' way, but haven't notice anyone else taking off the 'wrong' way. Even though we're right here, I haven't paid as much attention to the planes as normal.

Enjoying your reports. Thanks for posting.

probably less fuel consumption taking off over water rather than trying to clear the mountain.

A lot will depend on wind direction, taking off into the wind gives more lift and the big planes need a lot of lift to clear the mountains