/St_Barthelemy

St. Barthelemy is the official handle of this glitzy, ritzy resort. But everybody calls it St Barts. It is the first choice for the champagne and caviar set who pour their cash and cachet into St Barts with ever-increasing enthusiasm.

At the very least, take a day trip from St Martin so that you can imply membership in the big-bucks league, so de rigueur in this tres chic emporium of all the luxuries of La Belle France. Alas, all this is available at a price usually "trop cher" for the working class.

St Barts is also the only Caribbean spot with a Swedish heritage. Its film-set capital was named Gustavia in honour of Sweden's King Gustaf. Sweden returned St Barts to France in 1878. Its Swedish heritage and freeport, tax-advantaged status remain alive and well to this day.

Since there were no plantations or need for labour-intensive carryings-on, St Barts was populated by a nearly all-white population from Sweden and the French provinces of Brittany and Normandy.

You can engage in the usual Caribbean rainbow of watersports. As befits a French island, epicures will be treated to some of the finest cuisine on earth.

Although French is the official lingo, English is widely used. It can help to know a few French phrases, at least merci and pardon.

The French consider informality with strangers a bit tacky.

Include a title with bonjour and bonsoir, as in monsieur, madame or mademoiselle, as the case may be.

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