We Found Our Beach! Orient Bay, St. Martin, French West Indies

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People can spend a lifetime looking for “their” beach. The good thing about people and “their” beaches is that everybody has different views, ideas and preferences on how the dream beach should look: the small and secluded island beach or the packed party beach along the Mediterranean Adriatic coast; the long never ending beach for walking or the perfect sit and tan beach; the “beach bar” beach, complete with chairs and umbrellas or bring your own chair, umbrella and cooler beach; beach with surf or the flat like a sheet beach; the ice bucket cold water beach or the bathtub warm float all day in the water beach. The list of individual options and preferred combinations is endless and that makes finding your perfect beach so special and fun.

We found our beach on Orient Bay, St. Martin in the French West Indies. Orient Bay is a 2  mile long cove in the French northeast corner of the island of St. Martin in the French West Indies. The northern stretch of the cove has the typical high and rough surf of the Atlantic Ocean while the southern tip – protected by reefs – is a tranquil, turquoise tropical paradise known as Club Orient. Between Christmas and the new year, the southern half of the bay is crowded with island tourists and cruise shippers. The northern half of the bay is always quiet and a preferred hangout spot for the local beach tennis players, surfers and sun worshipers. You can have a fancy three-course French lunch with a bottle of Chablis right on the southern cove beach or bring your own water bottle, snacks and a towel to the northern beach. The choice is yours! The little town on Orient Bay offers everything from delicious French cuisine to hearty burgers, sandwiches and pommes frites. This little stretch of paradise really has it all and it’s up to you and your personal preference what you want your vacation to be.

The huge amount of private jets and yachts on and around the island, and its neighboring island St. Barth, during that time of the year confirms their status as preferred holiday spots for the rich and famous from around the world. While kite surfers, parasailers, windsurfers and jet skiers are speeding through the bay, the five beach bars are humming with everyone having a really good time with water sports, beach sports, people watching, culinary magic and/or just hanging out.

St. Martin doesn’t really have an “off-season” as it attracts tourists year-round, especially during the cold winter months in their respective home countries. But the locals usually start to wind down operations mid-August and take their vacations in September. And that’s our preferred time on St. Martin. Less busy, less touristy, less pricey and lots of beautiful Caribbean tranquility to soak up. We left Raleigh early August and spend two weeks on our island with the ultimate goal to enjoy, relax and recharge our batteries while continuing our detox program. Now, living gluten, lactose, sugar and alcohol free while on vacation in the French West Indies seemed like a Herculean task at first. How to stay away from Chablis, piña coladas, mudslides, baguettes, croissants and macarons?

The strategy was quite simple.

We skipped the hotel breakfasts and beach bar lunches. We walked every day to the local grocery stores to buy fresh fruit, gluten-free snacks and water. In lieu of beach chairs and beach bars we had long beach walks and ocean swims, followed by tanning on floats in our deserted resort pool and outdoor bodyweight exercises. At 6:00pm each night we walked to our dinner places in town for a light dinner, complete with a delicious bottle of San Pellegrino® (or two, when we splurged!). Gluten-free pasta, a selection of Thai-style grilled vegetables, tuna tartare and fresh grilled fish made up the dinner choice rotation. I also learned that I could do two pieces of baguette after an all-day gluten-free diet without any intestinal repercussions. Three pieces turned out not to be a good idea though!

We had an amazing time and after two weeks both of us not only replaced a couple pounds of body fat with lean, tanned muscle, but also hit our all-time resting heart rate lows and all-time steps per day and hours slept per night highs.

We were now ready to find out or detox progress by taking a second mycotoxin test!