Saint Martin - a family trip

We are here in Saint Martin- a Dutch & French island in the northeast Caribbean. I chose this destination to get away from the lingering long winter in New York and the desire for Mason and Laetitia to go to a French speaking place. It is also a huge bonus that I can buy more French children books to add to Le Ballon Rouge’s library collection.

This is our first trip as a family. Forever the wanderlusts, my husband and I have been each traveling since our 20s for studies, work, and vacations. We thought we have experienced all the different places and conditions – but traveling with young children is a whole new challenge. Worrying about feeding them, their nap schedule, changing poopy diapers, entertaining them, them wandering around, them getting bored, tantrums. … the list goes on. Despite the demands, it is rewarding to see the kids try new things, meet new people, see new places and expand their horizons beyond that of Brooklyn, NY where they live.

We passed a day at Marigot where we visited the market by the waterfront. There was a stand where they sell knapkins, linens, tablecloths from Provence and it reminded me of my first trip to southern France in summer 1999 as a college student. We had lunch at the market and my husband and I tried some very tasty Créole cuisine. Mason got to order a crepe jambon fromage at a bistrot. He told us here in Saint Martin they speak French, not Chinese and English. His French has come a long way since he started preschool a few months ago.

Our objective was to go to Maison de la Presse, a French bookstore on the island but we were told they closed for lunch time. So we hung out for three hours in the local mall and sat down at Le Pause café. The owners were a young couple from Chamgpagne, France with two young kids, Lola who is 6 and Lucas who is 4. Just a year older than Mason, my son was very captivated by the French boy. They sat together at the bar and I watched while Lucas did some writing lessons with his mother. “Chien, fleur, arbre, bouteille”… etc were the words beautifully copied on a Claire Fontaine grid notebook. I was very impressed how well the boy wrote.

We finally made it to Maison de la Presse where there were hundreds of French children books – I was in heaven. Mason was napping by this time in the stroller and Laetitia was playing on the floor by the books. She flipped through one very seriously, just as she has the habit of doing at our home library. The kids are growing up with a great love and respect for books. By the time we returned to the hotel I bought back with me three shopping bags of French children books.

Other highlights of the trip include a morning spent at the Butterfly Farm – where Mason got to see cocoons, caterpillars and many different butterflies in person that he know so well from the book, Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We spent a day at Galion Beach that reminded me a little of Nice, France. Perhaps because there were a lot of French families around and French being spoken everywhere. It was also very scenic beach with white sand, very shallow and calm water. Laetitia was napping most of the time, but Mason had a great time playing by the shore.

Both my husband I didn’t get to travel until the age 6 when our families left our villages in Guangdong, China for the metropolis of New York City. Some friends say that age 1 and 3 is too young to travel, that the parents would suffer more from stress than actually enjoy the travel. And most likely in the children’s young lives they will not remember the details of this trip or of those to come. But every trip adds experience to the next and make each one easier and more enjoyable – both for the adults and the children. I did not find this vacation very relaxing but Mason had a great time in Saint Martin.

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