On the French Side of St. Martin, Grand Case features a small Mardi Gras parade on Tuesdays in February. The “parade” begins with young women belly dancing and cavorting a la Las Vegas, followed by drummers and musicians. The street is blocked off from traffic and street vendors have food, clothing, jewelry and any other item they think tourists will buy. There are also a few art galleries… I checked out the Elephant Box.
World famous French restaurants line this street. Although several restaurants turned me down for not having a reservation, Oceans 82 took pity on me as long as I could eat in less than 90 minutes to make way for their 8 PM reservation. Not being very hungry, I tried out a hot appetizer, something with crustellini… but the best part was dessert, crème brulee. The custard was in a shallow bowl so that the carmelized topping was larger. OMG… best I’ve ever eaten.
Although the hour was getting later, crowds still filled the street. Another older woman and I observed that we felt safe with all the security detail… and speculated that there must be a “hunkiness” test to be hired.
