{"id":328,"date":"2018-05-26T04:00:33","date_gmt":"2018-05-26T04:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/?p=328"},"modified":"2018-09-28T01:19:52","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T01:19:52","slug":"hideaway-rich-famous-st-barthelemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/hideaway-rich-famous-st-barthelemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Hideaway for the Rich and Famous – St. Barth\u00e9lemy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saint Barth\u00e9lemy is an overseas collectivity of France in the West Indies, a constituent territory of Overseas France.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Overseas France Present Day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Often abbreviated to St-Barth in French or St. Barts in English, the island lies about 35 kilometres (22 mi) southeast of St. Martin<\/a> and north of St. Kitts.\u00a0 Puerto Rico<\/a> is 240 kilometres (150 mi) to the west in the Greater Antilles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Long before European contact, it is possible that Saint Barth\u00e9lemy was visited, although probably not permanently inhabited by the indigenous Ta\u00edno people.<\/p>\n

\"\"
St. Barth\u00e9l\u00e9my Detail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1493 Christopher Columbus became the first European to visit the island.\u00a0 Columbus named it after his brother Bartolomeo.\u00a0 Saint Barth\u00e9lemy would be visited only sporadically, likely because of the dry and scrubby nature of the island, lacking in fresh water for furnishing ships, over the next hundred years until formal colonization began taking shape.<\/p>\n

By 1648, the island had attracted settlers from the nearby island of St. Christopher (St. Kitts), but this would be a short-lived endeavor as the settlement would be attacked and destroyed by the Caribs<\/a> some six years later.\u00a0 These settlers were small in number, some 50-60 in total and they were cultivating cacao<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Cacao<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ownership of the island was transferred from the Compagnie des \u00celes de l’Am\u00e9rique<\/a> to the Order of St. John.\u00a0 In 1665\u00a0Saint Barth\u00e9lemy was bought by the French West India Company<\/a>.\u00a0 By 1674, the company was dissolved and the island became part of the French Kingdom.<\/p>\n

As happened frequently among the Caribbean islands of France, the British took over briefly in 1758.\u00a0 The French in turn gave Saint Barth\u00e9lemy to Sweden<\/a> in exchange for French trading rights in Gothenburg<\/a>.\u00a0 With this transfer the island’s fortunes changed for the better.\u00a0 The Swedes ushered in a time of progress and prosperity as the Swedes declared Gustavia<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Gustavia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

a free port, which made it a favored port for the trading of European goods, including contraband items.<\/p>\n

Slavery existed on St. Barth\u00e9lemy until October 1847 when the last of the slaves were officially freed.\u00a0 Without plantations to work on, economic viability was negligible and the life of the former slaves was difficult.<\/p>\n

Abiding by the results of a referendum in 1877, Sweden gave the island back to France in 1878.\u00a0 France proceeded to administer Saint Barth\u00e9lemy as a part of Guadeloupe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On 19 March 1946, the people of the island became French citizens with full rights but it was not until 1961 that the island was served by electricity.\u00a0 The introduction of this electric service allowed for the rapid growth of organized tourism and hotel building during the 1960s and 1970s.\u00a0 The completion of the landing strip greatly increased this development of the tourism sector.<\/p>\n

By referendum in 2003, island residents sought separation from the administrative jurisdiction of Guadeloupe, and it was finally accomplished in 2007.<\/p>\n

St. Barth\u00e9lemy lies immediately southeast of the islands of Saint Martin and Anguilla<\/a>.\u00a0 St. Barth\u00e9lemy is separated from Saint Martin by the Saint-Barth\u00e9lemy Channel.\u00a0 It lies northeast of Saba<\/a> and St Eustatius<\/a>, and north of St Kitts.<\/p>\n

\"\"
St. Barth\u00e9l\u00e9my in Relation to Near Neighbors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to a 2013 census, St. Barth\u00e9lemy had 9,279 inhabitants.\u00a0 Gustavia, a name which reminds residents and visitors of the island’s Swedish past, is the main town and functions as the capital.<\/p>\n

The dry and rocky nature of the island makes agricultural production difficult.\u00a0 Duty-free port attractions, retail trade, high-end tourism from North America, and luxury hotels and villas have increased the island’s prosperity, reflected in the high standard of living of its citizens.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Shell Beach or Anse L’Grande, St. Bart’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

International investment and the wealth generated by tourists explain the high standard of living on the island.\u00a0 Most of the food is imported from the US or France.\u00a0 Tourism attracts about 200,000 visitors every year.<\/p>\n

The height of tourism is New Year’s Eve, with celebrities and the wealthy converging on the island in yachts up to 550 feet (170 metres) in length for the occasion.<\/p>\n

\"\"
St Bart’s Yacht<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

St. Barth\u00e9lemy has a small airport known as Gustaf III Airport<\/a> on the north coast of the island that is served by small regional commercial aircraft and charters.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Gustav III Airport<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The nearest airport with a runway length sufficient to land a typical commercial jet airliner is on the neighboring island of Sint Maarten: Princess Juliana International Airport<\/a>, which acts as a hub, providing connecting flights with regional carriers to St. Barth\u00e9lemy.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Princess Juliana Airport<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to air service, many inter-island ferry services operate regularly between St. Martin and St. Barth\u00e9lemy.<\/p>\n

The narrow and congested roads, and difficulty in parking, have been an impetus for driving Smart cars.<\/p>\n

\"\"
SmartCar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As is the case of all of the constituent components of Overseas France, the official flag of\u00a0St. Barth\u00e9lemy is the French tricolor.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Modern French Flag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, as is also true of most all of areas of Overseas France, there is a commonly seen unofficial flag consisting of the island’s coat of arms centered on a white field.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Unofficial Flag of St Barthelemy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The coat of arms of Saint Barth\u00e9lemy is a shield divided into three horizontal stripes, three gold fleurs-de-lis on blue, above a white Maltese cross on red, over three gold crowns on blue, and “Ouanalao” is what the indigenous people called the island.\u00a0 On top of the shield is a mural crown.<\/p>\n

The fleurs-de-lis, Maltese Cross, and gold crowns are heraldic reminders of the island’s history as a colony ruled by first the Kingdom of France, then the Knights Hospitaller and in turn the Kingdom of Sweden.<\/p>\n

In our next post we will move only slightly from\u00a0Saint Barth\u00e9lemy when we visit one of the last of the Overseas France areas, also in the Caribbean, also small, and likely much less well known than\u00a0Saint Barth\u00e9lemy.\u00a0 Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As happened frequently among the Caribbean islands of France, the British took over briefly in 1758.\u00a0 The French in turn gave Saint Barth\u00e9lemy to Sweden in exchange for French trading rights in Gothenburg.\u00a0 With this transfer the island’s fortunes changed for the better.\u00a0 The Swedes ushered in a time of progress and prosperity as the Swedes declared Gustavia a free port, which made it a favored port for the trading of European goods, including contraband items.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32,5,11,6,7,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}