Raffles Resort at Canouan Island (Grenadines)

(June 23-30, 2008). After landing in Barbados, we started filing into the terminal with the rest of the passengers. Before we had gone very far, we were met be the Raffles greeters and whisked into the private aviation area. While we filled out forms, staff gathered our luggage and we were soon airborne in a six-passenger “shared charter” to Canouan. Just the two of us plus pilot and co-pilot.

Such is the pleasure of staying at the Raffles Resort here. The staff is friendly, thoughtful and dedicated to making your stay wonderful. We even had the New York Times delivered daily, or at least the fax copy of the entire paper. The island is a small one, with no real village; and the resort occupies about half of it, spread over several hundred acres. There is nothing within walking distance of the villa, except the other Quintess villa next door, making the two gasoline-powered golf carts a necessity to get to any restaurant, beach or athletic facility.

Because this is definitely low season, we virtually had the place to ourselves. No worry about reservations for meals, tennis or golf. The villa is typically well-equipped, furnished in chic, island style, with several locally crafted pieces.

Raffles, as a true luxury resort, several restaurants, and we set out to eat in each of them once during our stay.

Jambu’s has fusion cuisine, plus pizza, mezzes and a kids menu thrown in. Our mixed mezze platter, split in the kitchen for us, contained hummus, chicken kebab, tabbouleh, olives, artichokes, feta and babaganoush ($15.85). Gary’s fried seafood with basil was similar to those found at typical New York Chinese restaurants, and Varian’s glazed Chilean sea bass had one taste as the Korean BBQ sauce had merged so with the kimchee that neither one was distinguishable from the other.

One night off campus at Raffles’ down-market sister hotel, we ate dinner at Tamarind, located right on the beach and topped with a towering woven roof.

The chicken and sweet corn soup ($12) was tasty as was the pumpkin ravioli with butter and sage ($23). The catch of the day, king-fish with red pepper sauce, was garnished with mashed potato and some bland boiled cabbage, carrots and green peppers ($23). We were driven by there and back because it is too far for the golf carts.

Dinner at Bellini’s, back on campus, was a little more elegant with grilled barracuda and a cilantro line salsa, white asparagus and grilled sliced potato ($36.98).

Up the hill from our villa but quite far from the rest of the resort is Villa Monte Carlo, with a casino and la Varenne, the high-end restaurant on the resort. While we listened to the delightful Dee who moves from restaurant to restaurant within Raffles during the week, we enjoyed tuna slices, seared lightly on both sides with a crunchy crust but nicely “blue” inside ($30.57) and red snapper with a basil potato puree, sauced with a citrus vin blanc ($44.15). They started us off with a tuna and pineapple mix in a black sesame seed coronet and then an amuse bouche of cold pumpkin soup with Parmesan sorbet. An extensive tasting menu was available for $132 for those with bigger appetities than ours that night. We never did get to la Piazza, the fairly up-scale Italian restaurant, where there was a three-course set menu ($75) and a five-course menu ($123) in addition to the extensive á la carte offerings.

One night there was a cocktail party at Bellini’s, which we missed but we did get to the beach BBQ at Godahl Beach. Since this is the rainy season they didn’t set it up as they usually do, with tables in the sand, buffet under the roof and the Kamodo grills in between. Instead, the tables were under the roof. The first course was ordered off the menu and then we stepped up to the Kamodo grills (Japanese-tiled vertical things) and the chefs made plates of whatever you chose among tiger shrimp, rib-eye, ribs, sausage, calamari, red snapper and baked potato. Salad and dessert at the table.Lunch, for us, tended to be at Godahl Beach Bar & Grill, where we tried virtually all the six sandwiches ($18-25) on the menu as well as a pizza ($23 and a large green salad ($12). We did try the Pool Bar one day with its very limited menu, served from Jambu’s kitchen and carried over the bridge to the square concrete bar or to beach loungers. Two pizzas, three sandwiches, one pasta, two Asian dishes and a few appetizers comprise the en tire menu.Because we are not big on breakfast out, we packed a loaf of our favorite whole wheat bread and some jam and honey for it. We also packed lime juice and Agave syrup and picked up the tequila and Cointreau at the duty-free shops at JFK and Barbados so we could make margaritas at home. This strategy worked well for us.

Quintess: Antique Shopping and Buying in Paris

(May 18-22, 2008 ) On this visit to our Quintess residence in Paris, we wanted to help our American guests decorate their newly-purchased apartment on Fifth Avenue, New York. Ellen and Allen were decorating in Art Deco and wanted to add some very special pieces that they were having trouble finding in New York at reasonable prices (whatever that means).

We introduced them to our good friend, Michael West, formerly the Artistic Director of Faconnable. Michael obviously has great taste and a great eye and has turned his attention from fashion to his long-time passion for antiques. What he does now, in addition to adding to his own fine collection, is to advise clients, mostly Americans in Paris, in finding the best furniture, fabrics and decorations to their taste in Paris and negotiating the best deals for them.

For Ellen, he talked to her about her tastes, set up visits to some of the neatest places on both banks, and led them to things they weren’t finding in New York. And, then, he showed them similar items in other shops so they could get a true sense of the value of what they wanted to buy.

The end result: they were able to buy three pieces at much less than what was originally asked by the store. Must have been worth it, because at the end of the day, they asked that Michael accept more than his fee (300 euros for one-half day) as a nice “Thank you.” He doesn’t work on commission so there’s no incentive for him to make sure you spend too much. Nice! (Michael can be reached at mwest05@attglobal.net ).