What you can see on the Grand Fond cams
The main camera stands with a weather station on the hillside. It looks over the low scrub and the roofs of a few houses to the rocky shore, the reefs and islets offshore and a steep headland at the end of the coast. A second view, a still image from a terrace, looks straight out to sea. They are weather cams first: the color of the sky at sunrise, the clouds rolling in on the trade wind and the state of the sea on this exposed coast.
The windward coast at Grand Fond
From a weather station on the hillside, with its wind vane in the corner of the picture, this camera looks over the low scrub and the roofs of a few houses to the rocky shore of Grand Fond, the reefs and islets offshore and a steep headland at the end of the coast.
It faces the open Atlantic and the sunrise, and shows the trade-wind clouds and the state of the sea on the wild side of the island.
Grand Fond, looking out to sea
From a terrace in Grand Fond, this still image looks straight out over the low coastal scrub to the Atlantic, with a few rocks breaking the surface offshore and a wide sky above.
It is renewed every minute or two, with the date and time in the corner, and is a good one for the clouds and the color of the sky at sunrise.
The windward side
Most of St Barts' beaches and villages face north and west, sheltered from the wind. Grand Fond faces the other way, into the trade winds that blow from the Atlantic for most of the year. The waves break on rock rather than sand, the slopes are covered in dry scrub, and instead of hotels and beach bars there are only houses scattered on the hillside and the road that follows the coast. It is the part of the island for walking and for watching the sea.
When to watch Grand Fond
The coast looks east, so the sun rises over the sea in front of the cams, and early morning is the finest hour. St Barts keeps Atlantic Standard Time all year, four hours behind UTC. In winter the trade winds blow steadily and the sea here is often rough; the hurricane season runs from June to November.
Around Grand Fond
Toiny, the neighboring quarter, shares the same wild coast. Saint-Jean, with its bay and its airstrip, is a short drive over the hills, and Gustavia, the capital, about 5 km (3 miles) to the west.
Visiting Grand Fond
A road runs along the coast through Grand Fond, and walkers follow the shore on foot. The sea here is rough and the shore is rock, so it is not a place to swim: keep back from the edge where waves break on the rocks, and bring water and a hat, as there is little shade.
