Come to St. Lucia and it will not take you long to see why the island became known as the Helen of the West Indies and why the French and British empires spent almost two centuries fighting to possess her with the island changing hands 14 times. As the National Anthem so aptly states “Gone the times when nations battled for this Helen of the West… Land of beaches, hills and valleys, fairest isle of all the earth”.
Our island is the possessor of the same great beauty as namesake Helen of Troy. Saint Lucia as a tropical island is one of the most unspoiled natural splendors in the entire Caribbean and maybe the world. The island’s beauty is beyond skin deep, from magnificent mountain ranges and lushly forested tropical valleys to its endless, sandy beaches and coral reefed bays.
In his book Omerus, Derek Walcott, Poet, Nobel Prize Winner and guest of the Villa Beach Cottages wrote about an island with a rain forest with waterfalls and giant ferns, colonial estates with rusting mills, soaring volcanic cones, brightly painted boats and rum shops in beach villages shaded by sea almond trees, crumbling forts, yellow allamanda flowers, darting swifts and piratical frigate birds.
In the mist of the sea there is a horned island with deep green harbors . . . a place of light with luminous valleys. . . .Her mountains tinkle with springs among moss-bearded forests. And the white egret makes rings stalking its pools . . . a volcano, stinking with sulphur, has made it a healing place
Saint Lucia’s unique cultural mix enchants and delights and is reflective of its motto “the land, the people and the light”.
This island can evoke wonderful states of mind: seduction, celebration, romance, and adventure for that perfect island holiday. Its French legacy can still be heard in the local patois, seen in our many Gallic place-names, African, Indian and French influences has produced our irresistible French Creole cuisine and African and British influences that are seen in our flower festivals, carnival, official language and administrative systems.
