Cheval Blanc St-Barth Isle de France

Anse des Flamands is the beach on the north-west coast of Saint-Barthélemy that the island's residents prefer: a long arc of white sand without the planes of Saint-Jean or the yachts of Gustavia. Cheval Blanc St-Barth Isle de France stands on its western end, and the facts file places it in Saint-Jean by mistake; the hotel is at Flamands.

History

The property opened in 1991 as Hôtel Saint-Barth Isle de France, a small beachfront hotel in the French colonial manner that became one of the island's best addresses through the 1990s and 2000s. In 2013 LVMH bought it for its Cheval Blanc collection, then two houses strong with Courchevel and Randheli, and renamed it Cheval Blanc St-Barth Isle de France. On 6 September 2017 Hurricane Irma crossed the island as a category five storm and wrecked the hotel along with much of Saint-Barthélemy. LVMH chose to rebuild rather than repair, with Jacques Grange in charge of the interiors, and the hotel reopened in 2018 with its bungalows, villas and public rooms redone.

Architecture and design

Grange kept the scale of the original: two-storey white buildings with shuttered windows and deep verandas on the beach side, and bungalows and villas in the garden across the small road behind. His interiors use rattan, pale timber, painted ceramics and the maison's recurring shades of white, with Caribbean prints and work by artists he commissioned. There is no lobby in the usual sense; arrival is through an open pavilion onto the garden and the beach.

Rooms and suites

The rooms, suites, bungalows and villas are divided between the beach side, where the sea is a few metres from the terraces, and the garden side, where the accommodation sits among palms and hibiscus around a second pool. Several villas have their own pools. The hotel is small by the standards of the collection, closer to a private house than a resort.

Dining

La Case is the main restaurant, open to the beach, and since 2021 it has been run by Jean Imbert, the chef LVMH later placed at the Plaza Athénée and Cheval Blanc Paris. His menu mixes French technique with Caribbean fish and produce from the island's few farms. La Cabane serves lunch on the sand with grilled fish and rum punches, and the bar on the veranda is the island's address for a drink at sunset facing the water.

Wellness

The Spa Cheval Blanc works with Guerlain, as in the other houses of the collection, with treatment rooms in the garden and a small fitness room. There are two pools, one by the beach and one in the garden. Guests can arrange boat trips and diving through the concierge.

Weddings and events

The beach and the garden host weddings, typically small ones given the size of the hotel, with ceremonies on the sand and dinners at La Case. Whole-house buyouts are the usual format for a private celebration. There are no conference rooms; the hotel takes small retreats and board meetings rather than seminars.

Location

The hotel is at the western end of Anse des Flamands, about 10 minutes by car from Gustaf III Airport at Saint-Jean, the small airfield served by connections from Sint Maarten, and 10 minutes from the harbour and shops of Gustavia. The beach is among the longest on the island and faces open sea to the north-west, which gives it waves in winter. As a luxury hotel in Saint-Barthélemy it is the only one on this bay, and that quiet is much of the point.