THELMA BYRE In a neglected part of town, there was a small, family operated restaurant whose owners managed to squeeze a modest living from a local clientele. The food was substantial, unpretentious, and reflected the ethnic origins of the proprietors. The decor hadn't been changed in a very ...
Long live the Holidays The season's first yachts have already settled into their harbor slips, and by next week, hotels will be fully occupied. The newspaper ads for oysters and foie gras are running, and the Christmas decorations adorn the streets of Gustavia. If the island was ever looking f...
The Numbers Game It all used to be so simple. Now it seems we are overwhelmed, literally swamped by numbers. I used to remember them all, from phone numbers to social security numbers. But now there are just too many digits. More digits than you can count on the digits of your fingers and to...
TWO MEN IN A BOAT Actually it will be two men in each of two boats representing the island of Saint Barthelemy, when the 6th edition of the Ag2r, an exciting transatlantic race, sets sail in mid-April. While April may seem many months away, the local organizers of this race are already hard ...
Skål In Swedish, "Skål" is a toast, and one you'll hear a lot of during November, especially if you happen to visit the Select, the most popular bar in St. Barths. Indeed, November has become Swedish month in St. Barths. Visiting Scandinavians who brave the long trip to come to this corner...
A cleaner island This project is a vital one and will position St. Barth as an environmental leader throughout the Caribbean as far as waste treatment is concerned," said Michel Geoffrin, the council member who heads the environmental commission. During the inaugural ceremony for the island's ...
CLEANING UP I don't usually get out of bed at six thirty on a Sunday morning (or any other day of the week for that matter) but when plans were hatched for an island-wide clean up on October 7, I decided I would make a special effort. And I was not alone. Approximately 100 islanders, adults an...
Shock, grief and unanswered questions To tell you the truth, I didn't have it in me to write my article for this site in time for the mid-month due date. Like millions of people the world over, I was deeply shaken by the events that transpired in America on September 11. I was in New York when...
LOVE ALL In contrast to the normal mayhem at sporting events in Saint-Barth, the second annual tennis tournament sponsored by Le Rivage and the St Barth Beach Hotel (with a raft of other local sponsors) was downright civilized. At the summer volleyball tournament, the matches could be mistaken...
A November referendum August is traditionally the time when islanders spend their weekends preparing for, and then attending the string of neighborhood feasts, or fairs, that are held annually. During this hot summer month, the community party relocates from neighborhood to neighborhood, givin...
March 24 plane crash The Accident Investigation Bureau publishes its preliminary report. If the preliminary report concerning the March 24 plane crash in St. Barth contains no revelations as to the causes of the catastrophe, still undetermined, it can nevertheless be credited with providing s...
SOMETHING IN THE AIR The holiday season finally got underway the first weekend in August when Larry Gray, our local pyro-maniac or fireworks expert, finally got a chance to show off his stuff in the skies over Lorient beach, after two false starts earlier in the summer. For reasons too compl...
Hospital: The paths to progress Eleven years ago, in November of 1990, some 500 people gathered outside the Hospital de Bruyn's meeting room to protest the fact that the island's only maternity ward had been laid idle by administrative decision makers in distant shores. The demonstration was o...
SEASON'S GREETINGS Basically there are no seasons in Saint-Barth. Not the kind of seasons we had back home in Pennsylvania anyway, where words like winter, summer, spring, and fall trip lightly off the tongue and phrases like "White Christmas" and "April Showers" actually relate to seasonal ph...
Saint-Barth heads toward autonomy For the past several years, the island's elected officials have been looking for ways to push the island toward greater financial autonomy. The municipal council meeting that was held on June 27, 2001 gave a more realistic base by which to achieve that objecti...
Water, at last It seems that one of the island's most perennial-and bothersome- problems, has now been resolved. Since the beginning of June, potable water is once again flowing through the arteries of the island's water system. As a result, even residents in windward-side neighborhoods (Cul-d...
Away from Home I have actually been away from Saint Barth for the past six weeks. Business trips have taken me to Berlin, London, Las Vegas, and New York, with a family get-together in Philadelphia along the way. Time away offers a chance to look at the island from afar, and a dose of appropri...
Elections The distinguishing characteristic of this year's Municipal election is that it included the candidacy of a relocated Metropolitan Frenchman. I wonder if incumbent Mayor Bruno Magras put him up to it. Nothing could frighten local folk more, and, as a result, they rushed to the poles...
Some Good Old Times Easter is one time of year when the people of St Barth traditionally camp on or near the beach. While not exactly legal under current French legislation, this Pascal camp-out is an island tradition that is as old as the hills and "tolerated" by the authorities. Tents pop up ...
Tragic Aircraft accident There was a tragic airplane accident in St. Barths, on Saturday the 24th of March, a little after 4 PM local time. An Air Caraïbes Twin-Otter aircraft, arriving from St. Maarten's Juliana Airport crashed into a house in Public during its approach to the St. Barths airs...
Past, present and future March 8th is International Women's Day, and this year it falls at a very interesting time for St Barth. Here's the scenario: Sunday, March 11 will witness the first round of voting in the island's election of its next mayor. What does this have to do with women? Well, ...
Carnaval 2001
H2O When Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ancient mariner noticed that there was water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink, I wonder if he was in St Barth at the time. This tiny scrap of land is surrounded by the pounding waves of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, but there is a rather se...
Dear Visitors, You have probably read or heard that the island of Saint-Barthélemy has been facing a water shortage since the beginning of the year. Because of the lack of rain since mid-December and the profusion of tourism, the desalinization plant cannot meet the demand for water. But, n...
