Tag Archives: French

Fort Karl in St. Barth’s

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St. Barth’s is the French Caribbean’s premier vacation destination. It’s so fancy (you already know)! The world’s rich and famous flock to its white sand beaches all year round! When I had the chance to visit with my friend Emily, however, I was more excited about the historic forts than the upscale resorts. Are you a history buff, too? Read on to see the stunning views from St. Barth’s Fort Karl!

Fort Karl is located in the town of Gustavia. It’s pretty easy to find. St. Barth’s is only about nine square miles, and Gustavia is the port city where just about everybody arrives. A quick ATV ride or brisk walk will bring you to the foot of the stairs. Take the brief climb up the stairs, and you’ll be on top of the world! Well, on top of the island, at least.

Fort Karl has been around for quite some time! It was built in 1789, when the island belonged to Sweden. Since then, it has become rather overgrown with bushes, cacti, and scrubby trees. In recent decades, the island has made the ruins of the fort a popular tourist attraction, creating paths through the fort and signage to interpret the history and nature of the area.

Although the fort is no longer necessary for island defense, it is an excellent vantage point for sightseeing! You get great views of the town, and apparently it’s also a popular place for whale-watching. We didn’t see any whales, much to our sadness, but we did see a bunch of boats arriving for the annual St. Barth’s regatta.

The view from the top really put the tiny size of Gustavia in perspective! It’s incredible how tiny and old this charming historic town is. They’ve really kept it nice through all these years. It’s a tiny place with a whole lot of history! I wonder what it was like to live here during the era when it was all but forgotten by Europe?

From the top, we could also see our next destination: Shell Beach! This beach is entirely carpeted by tiny shells. We could hardly wait to get down and zoom over to this beautiful beach! St. Barth’s has so much to see.

Stay tuned for a photo-filled post about beautiful Shell Beach! You don’t want to miss a taste of this stunning Caribbean destination. Like and follow for more posts on St. Barth’s and the Caribbean! Until next time.

 

Coralita Beach

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So, I finished visiting every beach on mainland Saint Martin today! Call me a nerd, but I am really excited about this. My final beach was Coralita Beach on the east coast of Saint Martin.


Coralita Beach is all but deserted, and it’s a bit challenging to find the entrance. It looks like there are three or four entrances, but we parked across from this restaurant:


And we walked through this charming path through the seagrape trees.


A short walk through this path led us to this beautiful beach.


La Belle Creole gets a lot of attention for being a creepy, hurricane-desroyed, abadoned resort. The remains of the Coralita Beach Hotel are a close second. 


These ruins are a little more sunlit, though they are melancholy, like something out of Planet of the Apes.


The graffiti on the pool was pretty sweet, too.


The beach itself is also a lonely, abandoned place. There were a handful of other beachgoers there and some of the beachhouses looked occupied, but the sand was unkept and the little dock crumpled up from wind and waves.


To the north of the beach is an area shades by palm trees, and to the south is a rocky area where you can walk to Babit Point and Oyster Pond. It was crawling with crabs and black iguanas, who looked for all the world like little dinosaurs. It felt a bit like we were walking through prehistoric times. 


It looked like an amazing place for snorkeling. Seriously, I have got to get into that reef sometime. 


We were lucky to go on a clear day, when the view of St. Barths was fantastic. A perfect afternoon for beachgoing!

If you like being alone on a peaceful beach, Coralita is a great place to relax. Don’t expect any facilities or landscaping, just the wild solitude of the wave-swept shore.

Gustavia

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St. Barth’s is a magical island. Full of pirate history, tales of buried treasure, and beautiful beaches, this tiny Caribbean island is perfectly enchanting. Since it’s been a couple of years since our last adventure to Anguilla, my friend Emily and I decided to take a last-minute trip to St. Barth! Believe it or not, we managed to do a full day trip for under $100 each. We began our St. Barth explorations in Gustavia, the capital and port town.

We had reserved an ATV to take around the island, but before we picked it up, we decided to explore Gustavia. There’s actually a lot to see in a small space. There are two or three forts (we only made it to two of them, but I’m pretty sure I spotted another), plus a beautiful little beach called Shell Beach. I’ll tell you about those a little later, because Gustavia deserves its own post.

St. Barth was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1943. Although he often named islands after the saints whose feast days fell on the day of discovery, Columbus named this island after his brother. My guess is that he discovered it the same day he saw St. Martin, and had to pick another esteemed namesake.

Although it was “discovered” (I use that term loosely since there were already people living on it) in the 15th Century, it wasn’t until 1648 that colonists on St. Kitts immigrated to St. Barth. In the 18th Century, a successful colony was finally built on the island by the French. Not long after, the French traded it to the Swedish. The port city was named after King Gustav, and the Swedish flag still flies in places to commemorate the hundred years of Swedish rule. In the 19th Century, the island was returned to the French.

Throughout Gustavia, you can see both French and Swedish colonial imprints in the architecture and in the streets. Lovely old building have been preserved for hundreds of years, and old canons still sand like ancient sentries on the hills above the city. Today, the forts are used for hiking and whale-watching rather than for protection.

Gustavia has changed a lot over the years, despite the old houses and roads. Now, there are malls and fine restaurants lining the wharf and the back streets. Gustavia is a destination for the rich and famous! Being neither of these, we opted to wander and window shop, keeping our wallets in our pockets. Aside from an acai bowl (something you can’t get in Saint Martin, where we live) and a couple of postcards, window shopping was the order of the day.

We enjoyed wandering around and exploring. There were so many interesting things to see! I liked the gigantic coloring page outside a curio shop. Everybody who passed by stopped for a moment to color a little bit.

It was also fun to play tourist for a little while! Emily and I live in the neighboring island of Saint Martin, where we see tourists all over the place and are often mistaken for travelers. In St. Barth, we really were tourists! There’s no shame in a great, big Canon camera and a big, floral print backpack when you’re a tourist. Who are we kidding, though? I walk around like that at home, too.

Stay tuned for more St. Barth adventures. Don’t forget to subscribe or follow me on Facebook! I have a lot more Caribbean adventures that intend to pack in over my last few weeks living in Saint Martin. Until next time!

 

 

Seeing Myself on the Canvas

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It’s not every day that I get to model for a famous artist. But today was not just another day!

Sir Roland Richardson is called “The Father of Caribbean Impressionism.” He’s one of Saint Martin’s foremost citizens, and has made significant contributions in the art, history, and literary aspects of the island. Internationally, he is best known for his vibrant oil paintings. He and his wife, Laura, run his art gallery out of a historic building in the French capitol, Marigot.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may have read about the day that Roland painted Stacey. Today, it was my day to sit for the master. Last time I visited the gallery, I mentioned that my husband, Ben, is from Africa and I have a few sets of clothing from Tanzania. He asked me to wear one for a painting, so I chose a colorful dress and head scarf that Ben gave me for our first Christmas and a cowrie shell necklace from Ben’s mom. The outfit not only reflects the Johnson family heritage, it also represents the island’s African influences and the narrative of many of Saint Martin’s citizens.

The painting took about four hours. As he worked, Roland told Stacey and I about the island’s history. He knows more about Saint Martin history than almost anyone! If you’re around Marigot, French Saint Martin on a Thursday, stop into his gallery to watch him paint a portrait and ask about the island’s past. Roland is a wealth of fascinating information on the Caribbean.

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Don’t you love how the painting turned out? I can’t wait to see it displayed in the gallery! What a wonderful experience.

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You can see more of Sir Roland Richardson’s work at his website here.

Photo Credits: Stacey Culpepper

Grocery Shopping in French

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“Ground beef. Like, beef– cow meat– but it’s all ground up in little bits.” I did my best unofficial international sign language to accompany my explanation.

“Ah! Bœuf haché?” The grocery store employee led me to the freezer and pointed at the package of meat, eyebrows raised. “This?” He asked. It didn’t look exactly like the ground beef at Walmart, but it appeared to be ground beef nonetheless. I smiled and thanked him, placing the package in my cart.

There are only a handful of affordable grocery stores on the island of Sint Maarten, and my options are to pay $170 a trip to shop in English or $102.75 to shop in French. I choose the language barrier and saving seventy bucks.

I spend a lot of time staring at labels, trying to make out what this can or that box holds. I’ve become pretty good at guessing, and I’ve even picked up some French in the process (although don’t ask me to try to pronounce it). Whenever I learn to speak French, I’ll have a head start. I will know the word for every single food item ever invented.

Some of the labels are easy. I babysat for a bilingual family, and their kids called milk lait at all times. The cow on the front also helps.

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Others aren’t so easy. I always thought fromage was just the word for “cheese,” but apparently it’s the word for every single dairy product on the planet.

This is not cheese. It’s yogurt. When I bought it, I needed yogurt, but it looked like it could be  cottage cheese or whipped cream. I decided that the risk was worth it. Ben hoped it would be whipped cream, so he was disappointed.

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This does not say fromage, but it IS cheese. Thank goodness this bag is see-through, or I would have been even more confused than I already was.

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The hardest products to find are the ones I don’t know the French word for, can’t see through the packaging, and don’t even recognize the packaging. It took me a few trips and some asking around to find baking soda. I was looking for the small orange box, but apparently Arm and Hammer doesn’t do French.

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I suspect the packaging issue is why I still can’t find baking powder. My friend Aqiyla went shopping with me yesterday, and she couldn’t find it either, although she speaks French. You don’t realize how powerful branding is until you’re dropped in the middle of unrecognizable foreign brands.

One thing that is not hard for me to locate, however, is Nutella! I think I have a Nutella radar built into my brain. I’m OK with becoming more European, if it involves chocolate for breakfast. Yes, please!

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I have encouraging moments, too. I’m getting to the point where I can read a lot of French words, even if I couldn’t use a single one in conversation. I can understand most French signage around town, and I can tell the difference between all-purpose flour and pastry flour. I can even scan package ingredients for allergens and be fairly confident that I won’t send anyone into anaphylactic shock.

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I never thought I’d say this, but there are days that I really miss Walmart. But at the same time, I’m glad I have the chance to make shopping a bilingual adventure. After all, I never quite know what I’m going to come home with…

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A Day with the Coast Guard

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One of the most important jobs in the Caribbean is that of the Coast Guard. These brave men and women are ultimately responsible for the safety and security of the islands. They are often an unseen presence, but Ben, Stacey, Turner and I had a chance to meet them up close during an event this week.

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Protecting Caribbean waters is an international effort. There are four primary countries that protect Saint Martin: Netherlands/ St. Maarten, France, Great Britain, and the United States. We had a chance to explore a boat from each of these nations and talk to the crew.

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This is the Poema, a Dutch ship outfitted to stay at sea for two weeks at a time. We thought the gun at the front of the ship was pretty snazzy. Not something you’d want to have pointed at you!

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I never realized how many knobs and buttons it takes to drive a military vessel. The more I learn about the military, the more I respect and appreciate them. You can see one of the ship’s officers through the window, giving a tour and answering questions.

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Jay and Sandy gave the Poema additional cool points just by stepping on board. Sandy is a classmate of Ben’s at American University of the Caribbean. We stopped to say hey before making our way to the next vessel.

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The biggest boat I’ve ever driven is a canoe. I was happy to sit in the driver’s seat of this police boat, but I’m glad I don’t have to actually steer it.

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After leaving the friendly Nederlanders, we boarded a small floating piece of home.

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We approved of the name.

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As much as I love being an expat, there was something wonderful about seeing the flag of the good old USA. I didn’t realize how much I miss seeing the Stars and Stripes until I stopped for a moment to watch it flutter in the Caribbean breeze.

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Here’s Captain Stacey, ready to embark on the Reef Shark.

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It was nice to stop and talk with some of the American Coast Guard. Expats, no matter their situation, are always eager to talk with someone from the home country. We compared overseas experiences, talked about where we’d been born, and discusses what’s best and worst about the change in location. Suddenly, Arizona and Georgia and Michigan didn’t seem to very far away from each other.

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Turner enjoyed the maps in each boat. Some of them were extremely detailed.

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I had to smile at this quirky hula girl on the dash. She’s a little out of place for a ship stationed in Puerto Rico, but I appreciated the touch of humor in this room of gadgets and gizmos.

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I attempted to quickly attune my ear to French accents after the familiar U.S. drawl of the American officers. The Sualouiga is a fairly large boat, with a massive engine and a larger crew than the vessels we previously toured. What struck me most about the tour was the number of back-up safety features that our guide pointed out to us. Nobody is going to die on this boat!

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Ben admired the wood interior of the control room. He especially liked the classic wheel.

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I wish I could remember how many horsepower this engine has. The boat had two of them, in addition to a couple of large generators. To put the size in perspective, the engine came up to my shoulder. I would have liked to stay longer and look closer, but the engine room was hot and stuffy. We moved on.

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Our next stop was a Sint Maartin rescue boat. It’s a little orange boat suited for choppy seas and quick returns. Everyone on board was relaxing with cool drinks on the hot afternoon, so we took a quick look around, thanked them, and went back to the pier.

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We watched the patrol boats perform crazy maneuvers in the bay.

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What’s a military fair without camo face paint?

We tried shouldering the 100-pound packs the Coast Guard wear to train in. Thy bulletproof vest was heavy enough for me, but Ben and Turner could join the Coast Guard if they wanted to!

Since guns are illegal on the Dutch side of the island, this is the first time any of us have held a firearm in months. They were unloaded, of course.IMG_2183

Our final stop was a huge Dutch ship. We had to wait a bit to go on board, since the commanding officer was preparing to walk down the gangway. It was cool to see the show of military order and respect that accompanied this event.

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The gun at the front of this ship was gigantic. We’ve come a long way since cannons!

 

Ben especially appreciated this helicopter on the ship’s landing pad.

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It’s good to know that our security is in good hands. I’ve always had a lot of respect for US military, but now I have a high regard for Dutch, French, and British military as well. Experiencing the work of international military alliances firsthand is something I’ll always remember. I hope they come together to do this event again next year! It was definitely one of my favorite things that we’ve done on the island so far. Where else can you freely tour and photograph military vessels from four different nations?