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Wednesday, June 8, 2016

The "Island Escape: Magali's New Venture" Story

Magali as seen on her Facebook page.
It was an ordinary day.  Sitting with Magali at Antoine's Restaurant in Orient Village.  So happy to see she is well and just beginning her new business, Island Escape.  We first met Magali in the mid-2000s when she was working for a real estate company in Orient Village on the island of St. Martin.  Carol and I had contacted the company to help with renting a summer vacation villa and Magali was assigned as our agent.  For years she helped us find a variety of villas on the French side of Sint Maarten/St. Martin.  Each year we would talk to her about trying another villa and eventually she knew exactly what we enjoyed, the price range we could afford and the area of Orient Beach where we felt most comfortable. Then, last year we arrived at the agency to see her once again and found she was on sick leave.  We inquired about her, but were given no specific answers.  While having our evening meal in Orient Village at Antoine's we saw her walking past.  
Magali's son Antoine 
 She turned and saw us and walked over to greet us.  We invited her to sit with us and for the next half-hour began to understand why she was unable to continue at the agency where she had been before.  Seems she was assigned more and more clients to the point where her hours were overwhelming and her job began to take a toll on her health.  She looked great and had told us about a new venture that she was thinking of starting.  We told her to contact us when she was ready to begin her own agency and we would work with her.  Well, just before we arrived for vacation this year, we received an email from her giving us a website to visit.  Island Escape had begun and Magali was starting to offer rentals in different areas of St. Martin.  We met once again this year at Antoine's, where her son Antoine is part owner, and asked her to show us a few of her rental villas.  She picked us up on two occasions and showed us a variety of villas in different price ranges and told us she could work with the owners to provide the best prices they could offer.  
Matisse 2 as seen on her website.
 We were so happy to choose one of the villas, Matisse 2, as our home for our visit to St. Martin next year.  She negotiated a fantastic price for us and we couldn't be happier for ourselves as well as for her.  She is such a lovely young woman who reminds us of our own daughter who is close in age to Magali. During the last two years, without Magali to help us, we experienced minor problems with our rentals and had trouble getting the issues taken care of in a timely manner.  We look forward to our vacation next year and the help that Magali always gave to us while on vacation.  She always made our time on the island a pleasurable experience and we anxiously await our visit next year.  If you care to see the offerings that Magali's Island Escape can offer you, please visit WWW.ISLANDESCAPESXM.COM. or visit with her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Magali-IslandEscape-1712517885635970/timeline. You will have the chance to meet and work with Magali and realize first-hand what we have experienced for many years and hope to experience for many more years in the future.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.


Magali's car emblazoned with her website logos.

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