La Belle Creole
Last Saturday, Arif, Chris, Patrick, Renata and I went to go explore the ruins of La Belle Creole, a former five-star hotel on French St. Martin. It was hit so severely during Hurricane Luis back in 1995 that it never reopened. Today, the hotel lay in shambles, looted, vandalized, and overgrown with plants and infested with mosquitos. Yet, the hotel’s former glory still shines through to this day. Through the decay, the architecture remains beautiful and the site still overlooks some of the most breathtaking views on the island. In the past, people from all over the world came to La Belle Creole. Today, people still come.
La Belle Creole didn’t close because of Luis. I remember seeing it abandoned in 1986. We used to joke that it was haunted. I think that the developers ran out of money and couldn’t ever finish it to begin with, so they just left it sitting there.
Such a shame…