Multi-course meals often evolve into an evening-long performance, with entertainment at some of the more Gaulic-influenced restaurants.
The views are spectacular, with the color of the sea changing according to the vagaries of the sun. At nighttime, the water may resemble black glass, all shimmery and seductive. Afternoon sun brings vibrant hues of verdant greens and purple-tinted aquamarine. As if the visual stimulation weren’t enough, Executive Chef Louaisil will create culinary and visual masterpieces with the local seafood and fragrant spices, imported poultry, beef and cheese.
Venerable Caribbean Impressionist Artist Roland Richardson is a St. Martin treasure, whose own heritage embraces six generations on the island. Like Monet at Rouen Cathedral, Richardson is fond of painting the same scene over and over from the same viewpoint at La Samanna.
He’s often spotted discretely hard at work, tucked away in a corner of the dining room, churning his palette and canvas into vivid impressions of the changing seasons. In his broad-brimmed straw hat and paint-splattered work shirt, the bearded artist exudes a studious grandfatherly mien.
“I love to take full advantage of being here,” the 60-year-old Richardson reflected of his native land. “I’ve painted and lived all over the world,” he said, but St. Martin’s supernatural beauty and humanity has called him home.
“The color of the island is completely transformed in the summer,” he added, then the grey-bearded artist continued with a laugh. “It turns completely orange.” A small gallery on the La Samanna site houses a selection of his work, as does his gallery in bustling Marigot, where many fine goods can be purchased, sans (without) tax.
“As a professional artist working in the Caribbean one of the things I am inspired by is that Caribbean art evolves to the quality of the world,” said the artist of 35 years. He continues to work on the island “because it’s one of them most dynamic places in the world.
“I am an Impressionist and I assimilate others (who went before me) and take it to the next step. The Caribbean has the most intense colors and color is my language,” the gifted articulator said. His media is mixed, at ease working with oil, watercolor, pastel, charcoal, etching, engraving, aquatint, mezzotint, woodcuts and more.
Many of his original works can be found hanging in homes worldwide, a beauteous, color-saturated memoir of an extraordinary vacation. In fact, despite the sometimes hefty price-tags of some of the originals (which range from around $250 to well into the thousands), fans are reluctant to leave empty-handed from his gallery. For those art lovers, a reproduction of one of his art posters, a mere $40, is a must-have.
The prolific visionary, despite a childhood of financial poverty on the island, has emerged as one of the more successful artists on St. Martin, forging a unique identity and making a healthy living selling to the on-site guests at La Samanna, who can well afford the pricey oil paintings. In fact, he has even been offered more than what was asked, to his gratification.
The Caribbean in general and St. Martin in particular, according to Richardson, “is blessed by beauty and it rejuvenates people who have the opportunity to have an experience here. We have an international community, and we are enriched by the variety of visitors who generate their own energy.” His inspirational work is saturated with native flora and fauna as well as typified by the beautiful native subjects he chooses to paint.
Many vacationers choose this tiny island over others because of a collective, discrete laissez-faire attitude that translates well in any language. Wealthy tourists are delighted by the recently built Le West Indies Shopping Mall in Marigot, directly on the waterfront.
Overlooking the bay, encrusted in the rock of Fort Louis hill, this mall is a paean to luxury and high-end merchandise. Patrons who are fashion-savvy will linger over the perfume, jewelry and men and women’s clothing stores. Some of the charm of Paris is replicated on the side streets which contain stand-alone shops that offer some of the finest Paris labels, among them Longchamps, Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, Gucci, Mont Blanc, Lancome, Longchamp, Breitling, Boucheron and so on.
