Time Stands Still on Caribbean’s St. Barts

J.B. Priestly, the late English novelist and playwright, once said: “A good holiday is one spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours.”

He must have vacationed on St. Barthelemy, the Caribbean island in the French West Indies, better known as St. Barth or St. Barts. On St. Barts, time stands still.

But little did Priestly know that during the off-season here he could have a sterling silver vacation on a stainless steel budget, and with none of the traffic jams, crowded streets and waiting at restaurants that takes place during the high season (mid-December through April).

During the rest of the year, the low season, it’s different; it’s paradise. Birds sing during the day; tree frogs chirp at night. There’s always a delightful breeze. The days are consistently sunny, with perhaps just the slightest interruption from a brief shower.

Plane watching is the most popular spectator sport (quite marvelous to watch as the plane drops out of the sky and makes a three-point landing on the short runway that ends at the water). There is only one disco, Autour de Rocher, owned by singer Jimmy Buffett.

Not Much to Do

There’s not much to do on St. Barts, and that’s why vacationers return year after year. It has no golf courses, but you will find tennis courts at some of the newer hotels, including Manapany, Taiwana, St. Barth’s Beach Hotel and Guyanahany.

Off-season rates at these hotels are from $155 to $260, depending on view and size.

At the Hostellerie Trois Forces in Vitet, where off-season rates for cottages are $90 a day, you can set up an appointment with Hubert Delamotte--owner, chef and island astrologer--who will do a Tarot card reading or check your astrological chart.

It is up to you to pay him what you think is fair, which seems to be anywhere from $25 to $100 U.S.

Second only to plane watching is people watching, best accomplished at Gustavia’s open cafe, L’Oubli (Oblivion). Sit there more than once and you are guaranteed to see familiar faces pass.

In the low season your face, too, becomes familiar as you stroll down the streets of Gustavia or wander in and out of the shops in St. Jean.

You feel as if you belong, and, unlike the intimidation often felt in foreign-speaking countries, everyone in St. Barts will communicate so that you understand, even if it means leading you personally to the street you point to on the map.

The island has no organized sports but you can learn to windsurf at Grand Cul de Sac and St. Jean Beach where several hotels skirt the water, among them Emerald Plage, which offers bungalow-style accommodations for $110 to $200.

Charter a Yacht

You can charter a sailing or power yacht through La Caleche Yacht Charter Agency or LouLou’s Marine, both in Gustavia, and take advantage of snorkeling over coral formations or fishing for dolphin, tuna or marlin.

There are billiards and table-tennis at Le Patio. At Le Tamarin you can practice archery, or you can just order a cool drink and lie in a hammock under the Tamarin tree.

For an island the size of St. Barts (9.6 square miles, with a population of about 3,000), there is a surprising number of good clothing stores.

The latest, and sometimes the most outrageous, in Paris-design fashion can be found in Le Bastringue and Diva (with stores in Gustavia and St. Jean).

One of the best stores is Vali Baba in Gustavia, where the fabrics are hand-woven in Marrakech, Morocco. Papagayo, across from Tastes Unlimited, sells wonderful signed reproductions of scenes of St. Barts for $30 by artist Stanislas DeFize.

Although you can cover the island in half a day, the more you drive around, the more you discover. (The Moke--a “prehistoric” facsimile of a Jeep--is the best car-rental game in town at $30 to $35 a day). You can take picture post card shots of historic cemeteries, quaint fishing villages such as Corossol where women in Breton clothing peek out of their gingerbread-style cottages or set up roadside stands with their straw work, sunsets to write home about and beautiful white-sand beaches.

The visitor may try one of the 22 beaches, many accessible only by boat or footpath. If you’re looking for solitude, Columbier is the most deserted. On a weekday you may be the only person there.

Saline is another deserted beach, especially idyllic just before sunset. Gouverneur offers privacy, plus dramatic vistas of white sand and steep mountains.

Swimming, Picnicking

Residents gather for family swimming and picnicking at Lorient and Marigot; tourists tend to congregate at Grand Cul de Sac, St. Jean and Flamands.

On one of your jaunts into Gustavia, wear a swimsuit under your clothes so you can experience a swim at Petite Galet, also known as shell beach (one look and you’ll know how it got its name).

Perhaps the most wonderful thing about St. Barts in low season is the opportunity to live in your own condo or villa for about half the price of what it would cost in high-season, and for less than the cost of a hotel room.

On this island of fewer than 40 hotels there are more than 100 villas, condos and bungalows, from beachfront studios for $475 a week (sometimes they throw in a Moke) to four-bedroom, four-bathroom villas with views, luxurious pools and Jacuzzis, and more, for a weekly rate of $3,000.

That’s not the half of it. Let’s say you only need a one-bedroom villa. Not many people build villas with only one bedroom, but off-season, SiBarth, the largest rental agency on the island and with a stateside branch (Wimco in Newport, R.I.), will rent out the two-, three- and even the four-bedroom villas, and knock off a substantial chunk of the price if you want to rent the house using only some of the bedrooms and baths.

That four-bedroom, four-bath with pool, for example, that rents for $3,000 a week, drops to $2,500 when three bedrooms and three bathrooms are used, $2,000 when two bedrooms and two baths are used, and $1,500 when only one bedroom and one bathroom is used.

Save Without Pool

If you don’t care about a large pool, or a pool at all, you can rent a three-bedroom home for $1,000 a week or two-bedroom for $900 a week.

SiBarth prides itself on having something for everyone. Many of the villas have professionally equipped gourmet kitchens, and it is easy to stock them. For vacationers who love to cook, St. Barts is replete with island-size “supermarkets.”

One of the best-stocked supermarkets is Sodexa in St. Jean, where you will find fresh meats from France and the United States, a wonderful assortment of fresh cheeses, plus all the American staples.

The owner of Sodexa, Mathew Aubin, also rents Mokes, and if you rent your car from him, you will receive discount coupons for 10% off of everything you buy there.

Nearby is Rotisserie Traiteur, a gourmet takeout shop. Its offerings include five types of mustard: mustard with shallots and chives, mustard with lime, mustard with tarragon, mustard with green peppers and mustard with “ herbes de Provence .”

And it is hard to imagine even the most enthusiastic cook not being tempted by the daily assortment of prepared delights ranging from cold salads (a favorite, salade comfosee , consists of rice, corn, green olives and cubes of ham, cheese and tomatoes) to main dishes (from zesty chili con carne to lasagna prepared with the broadest of green noodles).

The paella would delight the most finicky Sevillian. And there is always an assortment of pate.

Chocolate Treats

The desserts are heavenly. Gooey chocolate treats are complimented by an array of fruit tarts ranging from bright red raspberries to kiwis with a thin custard separating the fruit from the perfect crust. Sometimes there will be delightful “mini-flans” (caramel custard).

Rotisseries Traiteur has a branch in Gustavia (some prices are a bit higher than in St. Jean), and Tastes Unlimited, also in Gustavia, has its own not-to-be-overlooked menu of takeout delicacies, albeit generally higher-priced than Rotisserie Traiteur.

On the far side of Gustavia’s harbor, women from Guadaloupe sell fruits and vegetables. This is the place to stock up.

Yet even with these wonderful selections on which to dine in the comfort of your villa, you’ll be rewarded for dining out here.

At L’Ananas, with its special view of Gustavia and its harbor, you will be treated in the way you imagine celebrities are treated at New York’s 21.

No reservations are needed for L’Ananas in low season, when a sumptuous full-course dinner with wine costs less than $50 per person. Even though L’Ananas is one of the most popular restaurants on the island in high season, at its most crowded in July we saw just four tables occupied. Often you will be the only diners.

It is even more likely during off season that you will be the sole dinner guests at the St. Jean restaurant, La Louisiane, the climb to which is as spectacular as the meal itself.

Favored Restaurant

Not visible from the street, this hot-in-season restaurant is reachable only by walking up 35 steps. Eight to 10 feet wide, the stairway, made of terra-cotta tiles and surrounded by lush, flowering foliage, is an appropriate introduction to the openness and greenery of the restaurant.

The menu provides a provocative assortment, but the fixed-price dinner for 140 francs (about $25) is hard to pass up.

At Trois Forces, the restaurant that is a part of the Hostellerie des Trois Forces, Delamotte has spent two years developing a pleasing menu.

His profiterolles are shaped like graceful swans and arranged in a bowl. For dinner, Delamotte offers an a la carte menu as well as a prix fixe menu with three choices of appetizers, three choices for the main course, and a dessert du jour for 200 francs (a little more than $33).

As an added incentive for his off-season hotel guests, Delamotte offers breakfast and dinner for an additional $30.

While to most vacationers a kitchen means never having to throw on clothes and dash out to a restaurant for breakfast, it is worth at least one morning visit to La Creole in St. Jean for an omelet. A full breakfast at La Creole ranges from $5 to $8.

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Scheduled flights to St. Barts leave from St. Maarten via Windward Air or Air St. Barts ($52 round trip) and via Virgin Air from St. Thomas ($70 one way) or San Juan ($100 one way). Also, from Guadeloupe via Air Guadeloupe.

Accommodations can be booked through Wimco, P.O. Box 1461, Newport, R.I., phone (800) 932-3222 or (401) 849-8012, or through SiBarth, P.O. Box 55, St. Barthelemy, French West Indies

Wimco or SiBarth will also make arrangements for Moke rentals from Mathew Aubin or any other St. Barts rental agent.