Les Saintes, Guadeloupe is not on the island of Guadeloupe. It is part of a group of tiny islands 6 miles south of Basse-Terre, the main part of Guadeloupe. From what we heard, it is much more of the old Caribbean and not as crowded as the main island.
After the one tour that was run by the ship and then having the experience of getting a local taxi drive to take us on a tour, we decided to go on another tour with a local. We took the lifeboat to the dock. We did get a local taxi driver to take the four of us on a tour of the island.
We would never have found all of the sites by ourselves. The bay of Les Saintes ranks among UNESCO’s list of most beautiful bays in the world. Overlooking the bay is 19th-century Fort Napoléon, with a museum and cactus garden. It was worth the trip to see it.
Gustavia, St. Barts
Who doesn’t love St. Barts? It is a real jewel in the French West Indies. If you are a shopper, this is the place. If you want really good French food and hotels, this is the place. It is also the most expensive island to do almost anything. It is the playground of the “rich and famous” especially for Christmas and New Year.
We were awestruck by the amazing yachts. One of them was the Gene Machine owned by Jonathan Rothberg who invented the Gene Machine, a next generation Gene system still used by many labs (old habits die hard. I worked in the molecular laboratory industry). It was only 160 feet. Another was the “James Bond” Sky Fall, a 223-foot yacht. There were so many huge yachts at anchor, it was hard to imagine how many people owned them. As it turns out, a lot less own them than rent them. We took a walk along the waterfront to stare at the yachts and hoped someone would invite us on. We only saw the crews so the owners were busy somewhere else or sleeping. Sigh. What would that be like (even for a day!)
St. Barts is a volcanic island. From the beginning, it was considered too rugged for large-scale agriculture so the island found its fame in trading.
It was a longtime French possession but it was sold to Sweden in 1784 so the French could obtain trading privileges in Gothenburg. It returned to France nearly a century later still as a trading island. From trading, it turned itself into a playground for the rich and famous.
We walked around the downtown area and did some window shopping in the designer stores. Every designer has stores there. Anyone who is anyone has a shop there. It is hard to imagine but they were able to came back from Irma quickly. Money helps.
We stopped off for an early drink, well mid-morning drink. It was the alcoholic kind after all, where were we going to go and other than walk to the lifeboat, not much to worry about. The place was the Le Creperie but it was more than just coffee. It was a great spot to stop and enjoy our visit.
When Mike and I visited here years ago, it was on a sailboat. We never really went into the town but snorkeled at a big rock that is par of the harbor. The snorkeling was great as the water was crystal clear and the sea life was abundant.
On the way out, we saw some more superyachts, one of them owned by Roman Abramovich, a Russian Steel magnate named the Eclipse. It is 533 feet.
One of the others we saw is EOS (305 feet) owned by Barry Diller and Diane Von Furstenberg.
and finally, we saw French luxury giant LVMH owner and billionaire Bernard Arnault’s 333-foot yacht named the Symphony. Pretty impressive to see helicopters taking off from the ships. They looked so small in comparison to the ships. It was awesome.
I would really like to spend more that a few hours there one of these days but there are so many places to go. Perhaps we will get back there someday to stay for a couple of days.