Back from St. Maarten/St. Martin

As some of you know, my real father lives on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten. He actually resides on the French side of the island (St. Martin), in the town of Marigot. His nationality is French. He's a firefighter there and occasionally I go there to visit him or whenever he's in Paris for training I visit him there.

When my grandmother (his mother) died in 2005, she left me two of the five properties she owned; a house in Marigot and an apartment in Quartier d'Orleans. My father was an only child, making me the only grandchild. As I had no idea and no interest in how to manage a property, I let my father manage the two properies for me. He oversees that the bills are paid, the rent collected and repairs made if necessary. I have them rented out to French navy personnel stationed in St. Martin. I have them rented out on 2-year contracts and both were up for renewal since February.

I kept potponing it, but the attorney told me I have to sign some papers as soon as possible, or I would get in legal problems. So I decided to take a quick trip to St. Martin to get it over with. Because it was the May vacation the flights were very full. So IPB would be difficult and I certainly wasn't paying over €1000,- for a ticket. Ja, doei! I had a few options; Delta via the USA or Air France via Martinique FDF or Gauadaloupe PTP. KLM and the direct Air France flight to St. Maarten SXM were both full!

After searching the intranet, my best options were to fly via PTP and then connect on Air Caraïbes to St. Maarten SXM. So said, so done and I left on Saturday morning. I flew to Paris CDG, took the bus to Paris ORY and boarded AF to PTP. I got upgraded by a very friendly AF agent in ORY to Alizé (Premium Economy on flights to the Caribbean and Indian Ocean) Merci, Angèle!!!

The flight was alright and I landed in a not so sunny PTP. There the Air Caraïbes agent told me the flight to SXM was full, so I got offloaded. I was IPB afterall. Paying passengers go first. Two hours later there was another Air Caraïbes flight to the French side of St. Maarten to L'Espérance Airport SFG in Grand Case and I was allowed to get on it. That was even better, because it was closer to my father's house. It's the first time I landed at this airport. It only can handle smaller aircrafts. Princess Juliana SXM handled the big boys. It only took 35 minutes and I landed in what was a very rainy St. Martin.

Parking next to Air CaraÏbes A330 and an AF A320 at PTP

View from the restaurant @ PTP

Boarding the ATR-72 @ PTP

Arrival in SFG

Sunday was a resting day and I spent it with my father. Monday morning I had to get the papers signed and went and saw the properties. I spoke to the tenants a while and then headed to the Dutch side. I visited Cheryl, Les' mother. Les asked me to carry some gifts for his family. I had a delicious dinner there and then headed over to Micheline's parents (Patricia & Remy) for a quick visit. My father had to work anyway, so I had all the time in the world.

Tuesday mornig I did some quick shopping in Front Street and then headed home to get my stuff. Dad dropped me at Juliana's where I took AF back to Paris CDG and then KLM to Amsterdam AMS arriving this morning. Here's a quick vid I took:


As many of you may know, SXM is very popular worldwide for the runway that's adjacent to Maho Beach. Amazing! Here's what I'm talking about (not my video's):




My visit was 'kort, maar krachtig dus'. Talk about major jetlag! Ugh!