Marigot, St. Martin

Day 4 aboard Windstar Cruise's Wind Surf (Barbados Northbound).

The view of Marigot bay from Fort Louis.

Today was one of those perfect vacation days! We tendered to Marigot on the French side of St. Martin. (To learn more about this island paradise, visit the website for their department of tourism.) Since this is one of the more developed islands that we're visiting on this itinerary, we decided to rent a car. We selected a mid-size, four-door from Xtreme ($35 US). The rental kiosks are right on the pier so it's very easy to rent a car, even if you don't have a reservation. Xtreme provided great service and the car was ready after about two minutes of paperwork.

We immediately headed to nearby Fort Louis (you can walk to the Fort from the pier, by the way). Once you park there is still a very steep staircase that you must climb, but the view is really worth it! From here, you can see just about all of Marigot. This is also the perfect spot to take photos of the Wind Surf.

The gorgeous Wind Surf as seen from Fort Louis. Really, it's worth the hike up here!

From the Fort, we headed to Plantation Mont Vernon. This is a good stop if you enjoy learning a bit about the history of the island and want to take photos (plantation house, coffee bean production area, rum distillery, etc.). There is also a nice gift shop here.

After the Plantation, we headed to Orient Beach…quite lovely but really crowded! If you want to parasail or water ski, this is a great spot. If you want peace and quiet, find a more secluded beach!

Orient Beach – way too crowded for me, but it's a very pretty area.

After looking around for a bit, we moved on to Grand Case and had a delicious lunch at a small French restaurant called Le Soleil. From there we drove around to take in some sights and then ended up back at the pier for some shopping at the Marigot Marketplace (local crafts and souvenirs).

We were getting pretty tired so we headed back to the ship to rest and decided to have dinner there. We are so glad we did! Read the next blog entry to find out why.

Photos © Leonard Hospidor. Please do not use without permission.