St. Martin!
This is the view from the main tiles of the Villa Mirabelle
After 3 ½ hours in flight from New York, (okay, it was first class, but it was still a loooong flight!) I saw green land among the waves of the blue carpet. We made a run for it. We gained third in line for Customs, but our haste didn't cause the official head-mama-of-crappiness any extraneous courtesy. "Where are you staying?" since we had no address, we had to find out from our driver.
Howard sprinted to the parking lot while I waited by her smelly foreign custom booth.
After two trips to the parking lot and a winded Howard, she finally stamped us and sent us on our way. Am I bitching?
Anyway, we grabbed our bags and headed out, meeting the butler (who was posing as our driver) and the chef, at the door. We cruised up these scrubby, scraggly foot hills over old pocked asphalt roads to our Villa. And then, Wow. Supreme tropical elegance. Secluded behind big cream stucco walls, with all the fabo ammenities we could ever ask for, we entered a paradise. It was divine. It was wide open to its own private pool, with a garden of great color in and around the expansive space. It stood on a cliff overlooking the bay, as you can see in the picture, taken by me (of course).
(Sidebar... As I write this, the butler is setting the table - waiting to unpack our things - and our chef prepares our lunch. Yes, I said the butler is waiting to unpack our things.) So I'm not bitching,right?
Menu: we started off at the 4-top table outside our bedroom, in the afternoon sun, with Pringles & Pretzels brought to us in bowls, accompanied by toast squares with cheese and olives and a lovely white wine selection. Our Lunch: Red snapper & Penne pasta in cream sauce, a Merlot and Evian water.
The living area and "community" entertainment center.
For a before-dinner snack:
we had an intake of toast triangles with egg salad, then Pistachios and Pretzels. I had a Martini pre-dinner that was quite nice.
For dinner:
An appetizer of smoked salmon, topped with white cream and caviar with avocado in oil on the side. Again, white wine. An entre of Fried Sea Bass in a cream tomato sauce with boiled celery "fries". I think we actually had a red wine with this.
For those of you who don't know us and our funny little habits: we don't eat meals; we have "intakes" which are small, very well-balanced meals, throughout the day (like 5 or 6 times).
We dined at the two top table in the center of the large living area. Pavarotti sang to us (on DVD). After dinner and after a rest (wouldn't YOU need a rest after all that food???), we were served a coconut & pinapple sorbet, Evian was poured. Diana Krall came in (on DVD) and sang her torchy deep blues to the sea.
After enjoying the night sky, we came into the bedroom to find a bottle of champagne (which we didn't drink til much later in the week), 4 Mon Cheri chocolates, and Bouganvilla blossoms all over the bed and footcloths, laid upon the tiles! It was heaven.
Bouganvilla Bedroom