We stayed at Le Paradis De L’Anse March 3rduntil March 17th. I was corresponding with the owner prior to arriving in Martinique. During this correspondence the owner never sent us the code for the entrance gate, just the directions to the apartment complex and asked if we wanted a meal at the restaurant the first evening or breakfast the next morning. I asked whether the grocery stores would be open that afternoon of our arrival since it was a Sunday and Carnival was on. I never received a reply so we decided to just grab groceries when we arrived. When we got to the complex we didn’t have the gate code and another couple arriving behind us had to open the gate for us. I went to the reception/cleaning closet and spend 15 minutes trying to communicate with the non English-speaking maid that my last name was not the name she kept giving someone else on the phone, while she tried to confirm our reservation. Finally we were given a key to number 18. When I asked where it was the maid just pointed. There was no number on the apartment we were assigned and we had to inquire at the restaurant as to which unit was 18. We were immediately shocked when we entered the ‘apartment’. It was very small and in need of updating. There was no sofa or chairs in the living room but a double bed instead, so no where comfortable to sit. The kitchen was very tiny and the 2-element cook top was very dated and it was very hard to control the heat. There were no knives for preparing vegetables and on of the pots was so dated it was aluminum. The bedroom was a small table, armour and a double bed all crammed in together with just enough room to walk around the foot of the bed. The curtains were faded and stained in all of the rooms. And the bathroom door was water damaged and the outside of it was covered in food spatter, I hope. The bathroom was very small. We are average to small people and had to lean against the sink to close the door. The showerhead kept falling down on us and the drain kept clogging up. The first night we decided to go get groceries and found out that the stores all closed at 3 pm on Sundays, this is why I had inquired prior to arrival. We went back to the hotel with snack food and I asked at the restaurant at about 4 pm if we could get a meal. We were told the kitchen was closed. At about 7 pm someone from the kitchen appeared and brought us 2 plates of cold food. He didn’t speak English so we were confused as to why we got the meals. When my husband went to pay for the meals the manager at the restaurant told us not to worry about it, it was all taken care of. But when we checked out a non-English speaking kitchen helper said we owed 50 euros for the meal. Of course she didn’t understand us when we said it was all taken care of and we ended up paying the money and leaving very angry. The meals were not worth 50 euros; it was cold leftovers slightly warmed up., better then nothing and I had to leave most of mine due to my food allergies. When I inquired about housecleaning after a couple days I was told it was once a week. That’s fine but the maid doesn’t have a key for the room and after coming around 3 times while we were out just left the linen and towels on the balcony. So I made the bed myself and dumped all the dirty laundry in our living room. After falling over it for a couple days I tossed it out on the balcony and it was gone that afternoon. We never once got our room cleaned, by this point we had given up corresponding with the owner. As for the garbage…. After a couple days I inquired about garbage removal since it was piling up on the floor in our apartments and the maid handed me 2 large garbage bags and pointed to the beach. I was shocked to find out from the owner that they had taken away the garbage contains and we THE GUESTS had to transport our garbage by car to the communal garbage bins at the beach. Most of the time they were overflowing onto the ground because everyone around was dumping garbage everywhere. We also inquired about switching units since we had a view of the street and 4 goats. According to the owner this unit has the best view. If you stood at the balcony railing you can see the beach, but you also saw the garbage and recycling bins and a very busy parking lot. The street was busy with cars and noise from 5:30 am until 2-3am every night. After the sunset all the young locals come to the beach and party with loud music. Also deliveries to the restaurant started at 5:30 am right outside our bedroom window. The unit was also quite a hike to the pool area. We inquired about switching units to be by the pool since it was a fantastic overview of the ocean but were told by the owner we couldn’t because we had booked with Expedia and those rooms were not available to Expedia or booked up. If you have any type of leg, knee or hip issues this is not the place for you. There are no level parking spots for the unit we were in and had to carry bags of groceries, luggage, beach bags ext straight down hill to our unit. We decided that the apartment was just a spot to rest and eat and went on about our vacation but were extremely disappointed in our accommodations and will not book with Expedia again. The pictures on their site are obviously not anything new and the picture of the beach was touched up. The beach was small and over crowded everyday and night, we only went there once in 2 weeks. Forgot to mention the kitchen sink didn't have a stopper and we had to fill a bowl or pot with water and soap to wash the dishes.
