The Vivre List — No. 1 — St. Croix — 2026

The city empties out for the long weekend — which is exactly when the good move is to be somewhere quieter

It was all work, technically — Camden, New York, then a flight to St. Croix with a bag I’d been living out of for days. And the work came with me; the island wasn’t a vacation, it was the last leg of the job. By the time I landed I’d earned the right to be tired. Instead I decided to be somewhere.

So on the last leg, I stopped treating the trip like a thing to get through. The work still happened — calls, the laptop, the deadlines that don’t care where you are. But I stayed on the water instead of near the work. An Airbnb by the ocean, the same one bag. I bought groceries from the local store instead of booking dinners. I let the mornings start early — the light comes up over the water before the heat does, and before anything was scheduled — and let the evenings go dark and quiet, just a candle and whatever I was reading. The work still happened. But the edges of it — the early hours, the nights, the in-between — those I kept. No fireworks. No crowd. The kind of few days you don’t photograph much because you’re actually in them.

Here’s what made it — and what I’m carrying into the rest of the summer.

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The Quiet Part

There’s a particular luxury in not going anywhere. Most days the whole itinerary was: swim before the heat, read through the middle of it, cook something simple, watch the light go. I kept the place lit with a candle at night — it’s the fastest way to make a rental feel like yours — and left the music low. That was the trip. Groceries and candlelight and an early swim. It sounds like nothing. It was the most rested I’ve been in months.

An unhurried life is not a lazy one. I read that somewhere, or I wrote it — either way, this was the proof.

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What I Read

I brought exactly one book, and — fittingly, for a work trip I turned into a rest — it was a book about work and life. I finally started Start With Yourself: A New Vision for Work & Life — Emma Grede, and there was something right about reading it here: an ambitious woman’s no-nonsense case for putting yourself first, read from a chair by the water where I’d done exactly that. Not the beach read you’d expect. But the one that fit.

The full Summer Reading List — for the long evenings — is coming to VivreEve.

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What’s Playing

The soundtrack to all of it was low and slow — the kind of music you read under, not dine to. Warm and acoustic, a little Cape Verdean soul, some Afro-jazz, a bossa track or two as the light went. It's the VivreEve an unhurried life playlist — the daytime, unhurried one. (Its after-dark sibling, the Summer Table playlist, is for the evening; this one's for the hammock.)

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Where I Ate

I cooked most nights — that was half the point — but two meals earned a mention, and I love that they’re opposite ends of the same island. One night was La Reine Chicken Shack: no ceremony, paper plates, some of the best food of the trip. Another was Ama at Cane Bay — dinner by the water, the one proper night out, worth getting dressed for. A chicken shack and an oceanfront table, a few nights apart. That contrast is St. Croix, and honestly it’s the whole VivreEve philosophy on a plate: the humble thing and the beautiful thing, both done well, no need to choose.

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What to Pack for a Quick Getaway

The whole trip fit in one bag — and because this was a groceries-and-candlelight kind of week, the edit skews toward the things that make a simple place feel good, not a resort wardrobe. High and low:

• A swimsuit — the one you’ll actually live in; on by 7am for the swim before the heat.

• A linen short set — throws on over the swimsuit, walks to a table at Ama, and forgives the suitcase.

• Sandals that walk all day and still read pulled-together at night.

• Sunglasses — the one accessory that does the most work.

• A straw / raffia tote big enough for a towel, the book, and the groceries.

• A compact speaker for low music on the balcony while the light goes.

• A travel candle — the thing I light first in any rental; it turns four walls into yours.

Buy the bag and the sandals well; everything else can be simple. That’s the whole formula.

Shop → The Vivre List — No. 1 — St. Croix — 2026

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I flew home rested, which is not a thing I usually say about a work trip. The candle’s packed. The playlist’s still going. And I’m carrying the small discovery of it into the rest of the summer: that I didn’t need a different trip to feel this way — I needed to actually claim the hours that were already mine. Groceries, a candle, an early swim, and the discipline to stop when the work stopped.

Off the clock until next time. 🤍

— À bientôt, Eve

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If you’re setting a table back home → The Summer Table.

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P.S. Connect with me on Instagram @VivreEve or shop my curated recommendations on ShopMy.

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