ST BARTH DAY5 – Grand Fond and its “baignoires”

Yesterday was another great “Saint Barth’s” day!

First a great 3-hours stroll at Grand Fond, where we have visited the so-called “baignoires”, i.e. the natural baths created by the ocean erosion.

Also our first shopping at Gustavia: Pati of Saint Barth, Mia Zia, etc.

Then a very good dinner at Maya’s restaurant. Cool and efficient service, very fresh. I had first a Mojito cocktail, then a big salad (mesclun, how do you call it in English?) and a fantastic Tandori (no Roy it wasn’t so much spicy, as you would like it ;-).

Everywhere, a lot of cool known faces, who made us feel at home!

Grand Fond beach

The famous baignoires of Saint Barth

 

 

 

That’s exactly the kind of perfect day which will make us come back here as soon as possible…

Tomorrow should be another stroll to Colombier, with a snorkeling session.

ST BARTH DAY4 – Landing at St Martin and villa

So, it’s snowing at home, -8°C in the morning. Here it’s extremely hot, more a summer weather than a winter one, actually. 31°C during the day, 24°C during the night. We are not so far away from the 40°C between our both “homes”!

It’s very dry and warmer than the other years at the same period. The sun is very aggressive, our son had a allergic reaction in his face, which never happened in the last 6 years… Today he’s going better, and we could have a super nice walk at Grand Fond. More on that tomorrow!

The villa over Saint Jean bay

Just to locate us from the Saint Jean beach.

 

Landing at Saint Martin

A small video from the right side of the Airbus A-340 300 we took between Paris and Saint Martin, during the landing at the Juliana airport.

http://visuals.didierbeck.com/ria/ShizVidz-2010012201.swf

Excellent!

ST BARTH DAY2: Saint Jean and Do Brazil

Sitting on the terrace, 22:30, still 25°C, having a good cigar after a super dinner at Do Brazil. Had a Sex on the Beach cocktail (excellent!), a beef Tataki on fresh pink ginger with hand-made French fries :-) And a ginger rhum at the end. By the way, yesterday I had a fantastic Ti-Punch with a very interesting old rhum.

We were at the Saint Jean beach this morning, first swimming in the ocean (26°C). Just marvelous. We have met also two friends that are on the island since 4 months (lucky!!). Was not organized, but as usual, everything happens here in a “cool” way ;-)

Saint Jean beach

Landing at Saint Barth from the ocean

Another view from the villa

Playing with my EOS 5d MarkII with my new EF 35mm f/1.4L lens. ISO 200, f/9.

 

View from the villa by night

Same configuration, with a tripod. ISO 3200, f/4.5 , exposure time: 20s.

 

Stars in the sky

With the same configuration, I have taken also some pictures from the sky. No cloud but a crazy number of stars. Almost no light “polluting”. ISO: 6400, f/6.3 , exposure time: 30s.

As you see, life is hard here!

ST BARTH DAY1 – Knockin’ on Heaven’s door

Wow, posting from the terrace of our rent villa in Saint Barth :-) 26°C, some wind, listening to Placebo. It’s now fully dark, beautiful sky with a lot of stars.

Wifi is perfectly working, with a better bandwidth as the one I have at home (download 335Kb/s, upload 130 Kb/s).

It’s 22:15 local time, i.e. we are up since … 23 hours. Which is good to forget the jetlag as fast as possible.

The travel was the faster ever, really no issue this time, including all our luggage on time. We were at Saint Barth at 15:45 this afternoon. So enough time to get the car (a Mini Cooper Cab), go to the villa, have a first quick dip in the swimming-pool, get some food at the supermarket for the breakfast tomorrow, and go to the first restaurant. As usual, we have started with a visit at the Hideaway. And a first walk at the Saint Jean beach by night after the dinner. Already seen/met a lot of “known faces” and friends on the island.

View from the Airbus before landing at Saint Marteen

View from the terrace

A part of the swimming-pool, overhanging the Saint Jean Bay

Weather forecast is quite good for the coming days here. It seems that a lot of flights from New-York were canceled due to some snowstorms…

The difference of temperature between Saint Barth and Zurich could reach about 40°C in 2-3 days :-)

Everything is just *fantastic*, as usual here…

Time to go to bed now. My son will be up very early tomorrow, to go to the beach.

On my way to Saint Barth!!

Dear colleagues, friends, partners, competitors, customers, readers,

As you know, I am waiting for this moment for quite a while!

We have the chance again to visit our “second home-sweet-home”. I cannot say how far I am happy to be there with my wife and my son. To have the time for them. To think about something else as the business and Innoveo (although I love that ;-).

No holidays since last August, quite a long time…

So a good chance for a “hardware” reset, a re-load and recharging.

I wish you all a very good time, take care!

PS: yes, I should be able to publish some pictures & stories from *the* island ;-) Stay tuned!

Alsace nominated as one of the Top10 regions to visit!

via Lonely Planet

Crazy! In its “fifth eagerly-awaited annual collection of the best places to go and the best things to do around the world for the year ahead”, Lonely Planet, one of the most worldwide renowned source for travelers, has nominated my region, Alsace, as one of the Top 10 Regions to visit in 2010!!

As one of the Top 10 Regions for 2010, Southwest Western Australia “offers variety in spades,” Lonely Planet’s book says. […] Other regions to make the list are Alsace, Bali, Fernando Noronha, Goa, Koh Kong Conservation Corridor, Lake Baikal, Oaxaca, Southern Africa and The Lake District.

For those who don’t know Lovely Planet:

For over 30 years, Lonely Planet has inspired and guided independent travellers to explore the world around them. Our team of expert travel writers are all about on-the-ground research and no-holds-barred opinion. Lonely Planet is passionate about responsible travel and encourages people to make their impact as positive as possible. Whether it be through our trustworthy guidebooks, innovative downloadable digital guides, award-winning website or cutting-edge television programmes, Lonely Planet aims to inspire life-changing travel, where every minute can hold a new experience.

Countdown started for Saint Barth :-)

We are extremely lucky to be able to travel to Saint Barth again this year…

Our last visit there was in February 2009. I have the feeling it’s 5 years back!

We were quite lucky last year when we have reserved the villa we will be in in some days (a renovated villa that was just put on the renting market). I think it’s from far the most beautiful villa we have rented. With an absolutely crazy view on the Saint Jean Bay, the Eden Rock hotel, and the airport. Have a look below…

So, in exactly 30 days, we will be on this terrace!

Saint Barth Portfolio 2009 (wrap up) – February 2009

Finally the wrap up/poster of my Saint Barth Portfolio 2009.

I have started to publish this portfolio on June 18, 2009 with this post.

The idea was the following:

I will publish 2 pictures from each region of the island per post. Force to choose ;-)

I hope I haven’t bothered you too much with these 16 posts!

I really had to finish, as the countdown is running for our next stay in Saint Barth (February 2010)! About 50 days to go :-)