France: Amboise Marché and Rick Steves (travel guru)

Amboise is in the chateau region of North-Central France, the Loire Valley. The city is famous for its Sunday market, marché in French. I can see why. We visited markets in several European cities, Paris (Marché Bastille), Barcelona (Mercado de La Boqueria) and Santiago de Compostela market and all had their appeal but Amboise farmers market is the Michael Jordan of European outdoor markets. Okay, I’m using a small sample, but the advantage of Amboise is an airy, roomier and more relaxed than big cities markets can possible offer. We walked past fruit and vegetable vendors, the cheese outfits, fishmongers, meat sellers with sausages on display, and egg men and women. Then there are handmade leather bags and jewelry, jackets and pursers, massive woks filled with rice, a golden hued, saffron color mixed with meats and sausage, chickens cooking on rotating spits and a coffee-drinking corner with tables and chairs. The vibe is friendly, warm and professional. These folks have been doing this awhile and know the drill.

We visited a colorful handmade soaps stall and bought 8 bars of soap for 20 euros. They were cleverly marketed with a vivid variety of colors and evocative names—musk, lavender, rose, cherry, lime, masculine and tonic—all lined up in bountiful rows. The soap man encouraged us to touch—knowing that once we inhaled and touched the soap our commitment to buying had increased. The Amboise Marché happens along the riverside with an island in languorous trees hanging about, adding green to this day’s overcast gray sky. The clientele is a good demographic mix of old and young, locals and visitors, walking the aisles and purchasing the products.

Not fully recovered from our day of many trains, I fell asleep on the couch of our apartment in the middle of a CNN program. I like Fareed Zakaria and his panel was good, but exhaustion from the previous day’s train odyssey just knocked me out.

We had dinner at Lolit, a place recommended by Gloria Belknap. The dinner proved impressive with some diners seated near the chef at a U-shaped bar. The chef, a slender young man with deep set eyes and a gray apron entertained by his presence and prepared in the nearby kitchen. We got a table for two situated next to an American couple, as it turned out. They were from Richmond, Virginia and had a military background, he as a military lawyer and she as an Army nurse. Leon Panetta was my nickname for the guy and I thought of her as Mary, with her resemblance to a boss from my university employment.

Our conversation with Leon and Mary, following on the heels of our discussion with a New Hampshire couple at the La Vieux Manior breakfast table, helped me realize a commonly known fact: Rick Steves is Travel King. He and his European guides serve as Bibles for the upper middle class American tourist. Steves and company own their travel niche like the Mafia used to run Las Vegas. And it’s a wide niche. The New Hampshire couple recounted how they ran into Steves himself, not once, but twice, in Florence—and even snapped a photo or Rick. He asked “who snapped my photo?” But he got into a friendly discussion with Mr. and Mrs. New Hampshire. Mary, from the Richmond couple attended a Rick Steves lecture, delivered by one of Rick’s acolytes, but said the conservative Richmond upper crust ladies in the audience did not take well to the Steves “get down with the locals and meet ‘em where they live” philosophy of travel.  I joked with the Richmond couple how I ended up liking Steves recommendation for travel cubes as packing organizers. I added, ‘’Shoot me if I wear the Steves zip off pants that turn into shorts.” Reed told me that Leon actually mentioned having a pair of the pants, where you unzip and remove the lower half, but I must not have paying attention. The French have a word for it—faux pas.

European Travel: Saints, Castles, Cafes and a Mermaid

Just returned, back home to the USA, after a one month swing through France (Paris and Amboise) and Northern Spain. I got to live the life of a bourgeoisie, as they call the middle classes in France, staying at hotels and eating fabulous meals in restaurants and tapas bars. I observed a few things in my travels with my friend, and came to a few conclusions. Or let's just call them observations:

* The summer sun goes down late in Europe-- around 10:00 PM.

* The French kings built beautiful castles for their wive and mistresses-- euphemistically called chateaus. Chateau is an understatement. These amazing structures- fortified with moats and thick walls and are truly regal. We saw a few, Chenonceau and Loches. Chenoncea has an amazing history and extends across the entire width of the river Cher. Loches has the feel of the Middle Ages and rises high above the surrounding Loire Valley countryside.

* The Parisian women have great style. So many beautiful women!

* The temperature in Amboise was very comfortable and the city has great charm. The walled streets of the city come right up to the lanes and streets winding through the town. You get transported back in time.

* At the L'Alliance restaurant I had "panna cotta", a cream dessert,with blackberries and other fruits. The flavor of panna cotta verged on a religious experience for me-- maybe the best sweet food of my lifetime.

* In Spain, we started out in Barcelona. I made a good decision to join in with a tour group for the La Sagrada Familia cathedral, the life work on Antoni Gaudi-- and wrote a blog entry about the power of that experience. Gaudi is up for a sainthood, I've read.

* Our favorite hangout in Barcelona, Chicha Limona restaurant was recommended by Jose, our VRBO landlord. We became regulars and got to know the wait staff in their black-and-white checked shirts. A shout-out here to Pilar, Tomas, Julia, and Lluis-- some of the employees who treated us so well.

* Santiago de Compostela also transports you back in time. The pilgrims completing the "Camino", the walk that begins in France and crosses north Spain to the cathedral and burial place of St. James, add a strong theme to the city's identity. We loved the Costa Vella Hotel, recommended by Rick Steven, and its shaded jardin in the back. Another city of endless winding lanes with stone walled houses and apartments lining the street.

* The Mama Peixas (mother fish) restaurant in Santiago is a standout. Spanish food and especially seafood is a standout.

* Check out a town called Comillas and the north Atlantic. Spanish tourists go there, a good sign, and they have an early Gaudi building called "Capricho". Capricho is covered with sunflower tiles. And we got to see actual sunflower fields in France-- where the flowers actually pivot to follow the sun.

* The amazing city of San Sebastian features a surf beach with golden sand. The sand somehow matches the gold tones of the walls of the buildings. I loved the pounding surf, too powerful for the surf school kids to enter very far into the ocean that day.

* The Spanish women are also beautiful.

* And I had my very own Girl from Impanema experience at La Playa de San Sebastian. The surfer beach in San Sebastian is where we encountered "la sirena", the mermaid. The mermaid was dark-haired with brown skin and might even have been South American. She wore a black wetsuit with a raya azul and had swim fins. The wetsuit fit her body like a glove. Wetsuits fit everybody like a glove-- but the glove surrounding her  body was exceptional. I asked her if it was a dangerous day for body surfing. "Peligro, no?" I asked. She shrugged her shoulders and smiled with playful eyes. She seemed to to say... it goes with the territory. But her territory is actually water. No surf is too dangerous for La Sirena.

My last observation concerns European travel, especially for the American middle classes, and the impact of a guy named Rick Steves. We had Rick Steve's books for France and for Spain. Rick, it turns out, is a Lutheran from Edmonds, Washington. Somehow his passion for travel led him to become the guru of all European travelers, at least American travelers with a little bit of money. I know there more hippie style of travel from youth. Reed and I got in many conversations with fellow Americans. Usually we would be in fabulous restaurants in between beautiful entrees or tapas courses-- and the topic of Rich Steves, the traveler writer and TV travel host, would invariably come up. Rick has become the patron saint of the well-heeled traveler. I got to experience that lifestyle for a month and let's just say... it ain't bad.