Each time we travel we have a choice. We can be a tourist or a traveler. In my younger life I was always a traveler. I backpacked through South America, teaching English along the way, exchanging room and board for language lessons and trying my best to speak Spanish. Later, even on short vacations, I’d…
One of the most common criticisms I hear about raising kids in Telluride is the lack of culture. This always puzzles me because I’m fairly certain that if I lived in a city, I wouldn’t be taking my children to the symphony, the opera or the local Korean meat market. But I’m open to criticism…
More than 30 years ago, I saw the Dalai Lama on German TV, laughing and joking as he likes to do. And I was appalled. I wondered self-righteously how the exiled leader of a country in utter despair could be jolly and lighthearted while his people are suffering. Well, the reporter’s next question totally changed…
Susan has spent a lot of time in Paris; much less so for me. Paris was a natural stop driving back to London from Torino, but we had no plans, depending on serendipity to have Paris be a big part of our trip. Seerendipity lives. We drove into Paris in a driving rainstorm, which made…
We returned. Most vagabonds never get there. And that’s a miss. Turin (or Torino in Italian) is a very interesting town in the northern Piedmont region, Italy’s first capital (in 1861) and home to Italy’s royal family, the House of Savoy. Our circuitous route to Torino began as so many stories do, back home in…
When Peter Mayle moved to Provence over 20 years ago, his idea was to write, yes, but a novel, not a memoir that put his adopted hometown dead center of any tourist’s map of Provence. For better or for worse, in part because of “A Year in Provence,” Menerbes became an ever bigger tourist attraction…
There’s something new in Megéve everyday. Today, it was a cow contest. Farmers came from all over, bringing their best cows, hoping to to win the bragging rights of having the most beautiful cow in the countryside. Like a dog show, the cows were tethered in long lines and brought out three at a time into…
Where to stay? Check. Our post about La Deviniere in Saint-Jean-de-Luz covers that, though we failed to mention a woman named Beatrice, who runs the hotel for Bernard Carrere. Should you call for a reservation, be advised Beatrice speaks only French. But you can email: la deviniere.64@wanadoo.fr What to do in Saint-Jean-De-Luz? Same post (above)…
Telluride Inside… and Out has just spent three days in Provence, and we’re now in Torino, Italy. Though we’ve left Basque country behind us for now, we still have some good memories to share; in this case the wines and distillations of Brana and the cheeses of Famille Tambourin. Our host at La Deviniere, Bernard…
Editor’s Note: John Steel’s post is not current. Clint and I are long gone from Menerbes, where we stayed for about three days. (The house limit.) John wrote the post the day after our arrival, many many bottles of wine and banquets ago. Turns out this venerable lawyer and former mayor of Telluride is also…