She then followed her heart and moved to St Barths in 1988 and spent two years at Guanahani before returning to Paris to work for Hotel Montalembert. Moving on to manage Le Chateau de Noirieux in the Loire Valley, she remained an island girl at heart and returned to St Barths in 1993 as General Manager of Le Toiny. Four years later, she became General Manager and Director of 22 Jermyn Street – a 5 star boutique London hotel – until it closed for redevelopment in 2010.

However during this time she also took over the Management of Les Ilets, taking on the lease in 2003 with her business partner & close friend David Henderson. All sorts of improvements have been made since, but the original Lédée family concept remains the same – to keep Les Ilets as low-key and as relaxing a place as it can possibly be. Sadly David left St Barths in 2011 (after 30 years as an islander!) to launch his own boutique B&B in Perth, Scotland;

Laurie continued with her management of Ilets on a consultancy basis and despite now living in the UK with her family she can be found at Les Ilets every few months to work alongside the team and to keeps things tickety-boo!

Click to email Laurie