St-Thomas...Charlotte-Amalie Harbour...the most popular cruiseship destination in the Caribbean and so, thousands of tourists come and go every day of the year to SHOPPPPPPPPPP! We don't care much about jewelry or Hugo Boss suits right now, so what have we done here?

We found a charming site, up on the hill, called the Rum factory, in an enchanting decor with rum from all over the world and besides sampling the Cruzan, we enjoyed their punch and the veranda!

Notre coup de coeur à St-Thomas est sans contredit la Rum Factory pour la variété de ses rhums et aussi pour le site tropical!

There are several areas of town that are quaint and deserve a visit. We visited the Frederic Lutheran Church with Steel Drums at the upper level and decided that we would attend the Christmas service there.

The pastor of the church was a latino woman with lots of humour and warmth and we enjoyed the west indian music and other gospels.

We also visited a "less shiny" area of town west of the market place; "Savan" is referred as a red light district in our guide...of course, this makes the visit even more interesting, right? Many latinos lived there and salsa and merengue music poured from every little bar. We were hungry and so decided to enter one of them with pool and domino players...we ate pork and plantain chips which was delicious. While we felt a little our of place, people were kind and asked us several times if we were allright and needed anything else!

Finally, we went to visit Frenchtown where Huguenots once settled, coming from a neigbouring island, St-Barth. While the names are still French ("Aubain, Magras"..) nobody speaks french anymore as explained to us by the kind hostess of the French Museum . Frenchtown was settled by immigrants from the French Caribbean island of St. Barthelemy in the late 1800's through mid-1900's. Many of the men were fishermen and so the area became a fishing village and is still today. In the early morning you can watch fishermen coming in with their small fishing boats, or cleaning and selling their catches from the jetties and from the Quetel Fish Market. Many of the older French people still speak Creole. In the middle of Frenchtown is a hill crowned by St. Ann's Catholic Church. A small museum contains several hundred artifacts of historical interest related to the area and to the French community including photographs, pottery, tools and furniture.

Here am I with a view from St-Ann Catholic church overlooking the "modern" Frenchtown wtih restaurants such as Epernay ou La petite Fenetre... Me voilà sur la terrasse de l'église St-Anne dominant le quartier "français" appelé Frenchtown, dont les habitants sont des descendants des Huguenots venus de l'île voisine St-Barth...

Et encore dans la tradition française, nous avons découvert que le père de l'Impressionisme Camille Pissaro n'était pas français! Né ici a St_Thomas de père juif-portugais et d'une mère dominicaine, c'est ici qu'il a commencé sa carrière d'artiste avec des scènes du port et des environs de Charlotte-Amalie. Nous avons visité le petit musée sur la rue principale.
And to remain in the French tradition, we discovered that the "French" painter Camille Pissaro...was not French but born of a Portuguese-Jewish Father and a Dominican mother right here in St_Thomas! here is the house, located on Main street and now hosting a small museum.

These were some sights of this town whose charms remain unknown ... Et voila quelques aperçus de cette petite ville ou déferlent tant de touristes mais dont les attraits restent probablement méconnus!