The full title of this travel piece is “This Caribbean Island’s Vice President Will Give You a 1-on-1 Tour in Her Taxi — and I Took Her Up on It.” Here are excerpts from the article by Ross Kenneth Urken (Travel + Leisure) who offers a “behind-the-scenes look at the famously chic St. Barts, with preservationist politician Hélène Bernier.”
On a recent morning at Eden Rock – St Barths resort, I swept through the sceney Sand Bar restaurant and down the property’s front steps to find my taxi. This was not to be a run-of-the-mill cab ride, though, because my driver was none other than Hélène Bernier, the vice president of Saint Barthélemy. Behind the wheel of her gray Hyundai H-1 van, dressed in a pink jumpsuit from the local Poupette boutique and her hand at her brow to block the sunlight, the flaxen-haired, 48-year-old politician greeted me as I hopped in shotgun.
In this tony French collectivity – a common Caribbean escape for Hollywood A-listers, Silicon Valley moguls, and European business magnates – I wanted an off-the-beaten-path journey, and certainly something beyond the island’s see-and-be-seen elements. The true draw of St. Barts, after all, is its well-preserved natural beauty, something that’s been threatened in no small measure amid the past few decades of rapid development. Bernier, who grew up here in a family of French ancestry that’s been on the island since 1648, is the island’s main conservationist and its consummate tour guide. Those two métiers arose in tandem: her time as a kids’ programming director at Le Guanahani, now a Rosewood hotel, and as a sailboat skipper, inspired her to create a nature-forward guide service for tourists called Easy Time back in 2005. (She officially got her taxi license in 2018.) Her commitment to showing others the island’s authentic local corners and rich biodiversity spurred her to found St. Barth Essential (SBE) in 2009, an environment protection group with the mission to “preserve the real St. Barts.”
“The real St. Barts” is just what she aims to explore with the travelers who book her taxi tours. It’s not so common a proposition, of course, to arrive at a place and have extended access to an elected official, let alone its second-in-command. But it’s an exhilarating opportunity any visitor to St. Barts can have, so I buckled up accordingly. In a fluster of franglais, we set out from the island’s social nexus to get an insider’s glance at the gem of the French West Indies, including its environmental beauties and vulnerabilities. [. . .]
She elaborated on the rise of St. Barts as a jet-setters’ paradise for the likes of Greta Garbo and Howard Hughes. Times were simpler before, she said; with professorial cadence, she then ran me through a historical overview of the island, from the time of the native Arawaks and Caribs to pirate lore, the 100 years of Swedish rule, and the current French control. She believes it’s important to tell and preserve the story of the island and its natural environment. “If we don’t,” she said, gripping the steering wheel, “it’s easy to forget where we come from.”
That ethos has motivated her in further protecting the island through politics, first as a member of the Conseil Territorial, the island’s parliament. Then when Bruno Magras – an airline magnate who served in various St. Barts political positions for 27 years – decided not to seek reelection in 2022, she ran a successful campaign as a staunch environmentalist that landed her in the VP seat, with Xavier Lédée assuming the role of president.
Though some 60 percent of St. Barts is officially protected as green zones, it has been said that the real green that matters here is the American dollar. That is, the more money you have, the more you’re able to find loopholes to build. “With us, I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Bernier said. [. . .]
Bernier is encouraging of efforts from neighboring Eden Rock, which instead intends to rehabilitate the St. Jean Pond and support St. Jean Bay coral restoration.
[We] made our way toward Grand Saline on the south coast and pulled over at the salt pond here that once contributed to a thriving salt export business until the 1970s. Rapid development during the second half of the 20th century polluted these waters. In 2009, she managed to prevent André Balazs from building a beachfront hotel here, but three rock-crushing sites nearby have only exacerbated the health of this ecosystem. She pointed out a sole black-necked stilt, one of the island’s 13 protected birds, strutting in the shallows.
Overlooking the pond sits a gray house that once belonged to Charles Dumont, who co-wrote love ballads with Edith Piaf. There’s still some hope here, Bernier said. The area is being restored thanks to efforts from the likes of the Make Saint-Barts Green Again association. She has plans to build a little museum to tell the story of salt exports on the island and honor the heritage of this site while also cleaning it up enough to make and sell salt from this culturally important location. [. . .]
It was prime season to see humpbacks, and as an avid scuba diver, Bernier said she enjoys hearing their song underwater. They come to mate in the warm Caribbean waters, and the mothers typically give birth toward the Dominican Republic before returning with their calves off the coast of St. Barts. For Bernier, this maternal bond reinforces the importance of her environmental initiatives on the island and its surrounding marine environment. “It’s important, what you leave to your children,” she said. “I try to preserve the land my father gave me and try to give it to my children.” [. . .]
In the area, there are some bright notes. The cove off Rosewood Le Guanahani is filled with rays and has seagrass beds that support a large population of endangered green sea turtles, whose heads pop out of the water like periscopes. The property itself features the rare Turks cap cactus, which provides a supportive environment for tortoises, lizards, and tree frogs. An elevated hiking trail flaunts an array of local fauna. She once minded the kids on this property. Now, she’s looking after the future of the entire island. [. . .]
Read full article at https://www.travelandleisure.com/tour-st-barths-with-vice-president-in-her-taxi-7559508
[Photos: First, photo of the author with preservationist politician Hélène Bernier by Tiffan Borelli; second, photo by Ross Kenneth Urken: Hélène Bernier.]
The full title of this travel piece is “This Caribbean Island’s Vice President Will Give You a 1-on-1 Tour in Her Taxi — and I Took Her Up on It.” Here are excerpts from the article by Ross Kenneth Urken (Travel + Leisure) who offers a “behind-the-scenes look at the famously chic St. Barts, with
