Anyway, off we went.  Our plan was just to go right round the island on the first day, as it is only approx. 7 miles by 7 miles, this was never going to be a major road trip!   Our first stop was Grand Case.  This is a small seaside resort area, full of restaurants and bars, which is, in fact, famous on the island for the quality of food in its restaurants.  Unfortunately, it was only 10.30am and nowhere near lunch time!  There is a really nice anchorage just in the bay there and now we have seen it, we will probably head there for a couple of days while we wait for boat parts etc, which are still to arrive.  We can't clear out of in Grand Case, it has to be Marigot, so we can collect anything else later in the week.  

  The old salt mill in Grand Case - salt was farmed in the area up until 1961

  The main street in Grand Case

Anse Marcel, also in the cruising guide, is a small anchorage a bit further north.  It is more difficult to get to by road as you have to go across some fairly mountainous roads - this proved an issue in our small rental car - we had stopped to check out a supermarket to see if it was worth a visit later in the day, and debated buying some of the less perishable items such as beer, etc.  It is a good job we didn't though - I m not sure we would have made it up the hill with a full boot, the car was struggling as it was!

  A homemade boat on the beach in Grand Case

Anse Marcel looks brand new, as does much of the island.  It is a lagoon around which Radisson has built a large purpose built resort, marina and various bars, restaurants and shops.  The whole effect is of a rather sanitised area, as opposed to an area of natural beauty.  The anchorage here was however much too shallow for us, and not really the type of place we were looking for.  

There is only one real route around the island, with very few roads and only one actually cutting across the island.  This crosses the French/Dutch border to the east of the Lagoon rather than having to drive all the way round.  We stopped for lunch in Phillipsburg - not our favourite place but we were starving by this stage.  We had intended to stay on the French side, but all the places we had looked at for lunch were, very oddly, closed on Saturday lunchtime.  Phillipsburg was, as ever, crammed full of people just off the cruise boat and outside every shop you went past, there were people trying to drag you in to either buy some diamonds or tourist tat, neither of which we have much use for!

As we had time, and were not going to get caught out with a bridge opening in Simpson Bay when the queues can be massive, we drove round the Lagoon, back to Marigot.  You get a totally different view of the island by air-conditioned car than you do on foot in the sweltering heat.  There has clearly been a huge amount if investment in the island, both in building large, imposing homes and also in some of the marinas and mall developments, although they seem to be short of tenants actually in the mall.  You can also tell when you transfer from the French side to the Dutch without seeing the large signs on the roadsides, the roads on the French side are terrible, with huge potholes everywhere, whereas on the Dutch side they are smooth tarmac.

After stocking up at the supermarket, we popped into the Boulangerie for a baguette before heading home.  When we had walked round Grand Case in the morning, we had not, to our dismay, seen a Boulangerie which was clearly unusual as it is a very French town.  However, we spotted one on our way back from the supermarket - the bread was delicious as ever, and now that we have found the Boulangerie for our morning baguette, there is nothing to stop us heading over there for a few days next week!

  Checking out the view over to Pinel Island

 Pinel Island

  When eating mussels, John has something of an obsession which requires him to line up all his empty mussel shells - I, on the other hand,  just throw them in the bowl!

Sunday was a relaxing day back at Orient Beach where we went last time we were here. The beach is full of huge beach bars, with hundreds of deckchairs lining the sand, almost entirely covering it.  In the evening, we took a bottle of fizz up the hill to Fort Louis, behind the marina for a 'romantic moment' watching the sunset over the bay! 

 Marigot town from the Fort

 Sunset over the anchorage

 Enjoying a glass of champagne at sunset.