By
way of a brief introduction…
For those of you who do not know Relais & Chateaux Le Toiny. Read on – For
those of you who do – just take a quick break and enjoy.
The week before last, my wife told me she had to go to St. Bart’s and she
had a suite at Le Toiny… Did I want to join her? This was two days before
she was leaving and I had not planned on going.. But... when she said she
was staying at Le Toiny.. Well… two things. First, I said no, I couldn’t
make it. Second, internally I said, ‘How am I going to make it?’ Calling up
trusty Wimco air person Ann Murphy she finds me a bulk air ticket for $512
Wednesday afternoon for travel Thursday. Now we are talking. Clearing my
desk was a cinch. My wife had already left for NY earlier, and about 9 pm, I
called saying I would be coming along for the ride the next morning.
Ok. Definitely spur of the minute. And how great was that? I arrive at Le
Toiny, greeted by Manager David Henderson, a Scot who is possibly one of the
funniest guys on the planet, and whose humor is exceeded only by the
seriousness of attention to detail he gives Le Toiny every day, and it
shows.
We get ready to pop down to the new Suite 17 – “Oh, sorry, Tim, but I would
have given you the larger new 18 – but Julie said she was coming alone…Oh
too bad old boy.” “Let me know how you like it”.
Needless
to say while this is going on we are sipping champagne as we check in, and
within minutes are whisked down to the suite. Mind you - suites are
individual villas with pool, living area with an excellent work desk
(private fax, web connection etc), bedroom, and a bathroom seriously large
enough for the both us, and the largest wide screen TV around. (They could
use a few more channels – oh, sorry Dave…) Nevertheless, I did spend a fair
amount of time in front of it. I think Kerry was wrapping up the for gone
conclusion at the time.
As soon as we are in the room, a sweetheart of a girl arrives with some little fresh fruit canapés as well as another plate of chef’s delights. Key here being very ‘light’, and not filling. This, by the way, happens every afternoon about 4:30. The only question is: Are we sleeping off lunch or not? Popping into the pool was easy, as was a long soak in the tub later leisurely catching up on all the reading I had been anxious to do over the past few weeks. Lying in the tub has the additional attraction of having a TV repeater so if reading becomes tiring, watching the tube is even easier! (And yes, the tub does have Jacuzzi jets)
