Spendthrift Shoestring

France: Culinary tourism inspiration

I'm very excited about the arrival of this book via post earlier this week. Nos meilleurs produits du terroir en France, published by Routard, is a guide to local culinary products across France. Listings encompass shops as well as restaurants, and there is an index for organic produce. It's already inspired me to map out some itineraries organized around a search for preserves, various meats, wine, and other delicacies.

I wish that we'd see the development of guidebooks devoted to local specialty produce in other countries. These guidebooks are good for small-scale farmers, rural tourism in general, and big eaters. I support all three.

(I also love the timelessness of the book's cover. Beautiful and 1970ish, right?)

List: White Slab Palace, Niemeyer, Promises

Back in New York and working away with Nathan on a big project. Three quick things.

1. White Slab Palace. Nothing makes me feel more like a curmudgeon than being annoyed by bad service. Most of the time, I don't really care if my waiter is preoccupied or off in his own world. But last night at White Slab Palace, the Swedishish place that has essentially replaced Good World, I found myself grumpy. The service was slow and clueless. I ordered Good World's signature Berzerker cocktail only to be told by a waitress that it wasn't on the menu. Then, after being promised a drinks menu that never arrived, I grabbed one off the bar and discovered that the Berzerker was indeed on offer. The grub was fine but nothing great. And there was a security guard who stood around blocking the route to the bathroom. A security guard? Really? The whole experience was a huge reminder that hipsterism and good dining in New York City are all too often mutually repulsive.

2. Niemeyer. I've had an architectural crush on Oscar Niemeyer's French Communist Party headquarters in Paris forever. It's sort of my dream building—modernist, brutal, undulating. It was only through poking around the other day online that I chanced upon some images of its interiors. Check out Olivier Pascaud's gorgeous photographs here. That conference room almost makes me want urgently to have French Communist business to attend to.

3. Promises. Photos of San Sebastián, Bilbao, and Santander to come.

Pau: Fragments and Signs

Sud Ouest headline.

Detail from the poster advertising the film Le Missionaire (out April 29).

Pau railway station roof.

Fashionable Lille

I really enjoyed the NYT's story on Lille's renewal yesterday. The city has commanded a fair share of attention and ink over the last few years in Europe. The "Surfacing" rubric, under which the Lille article was classified, made me fear a tardy introduction to the city's charms. My fears went unmet. Seth Sherwood's piece yesterday comments on the initiative to lure fashion designers to Lille and nearby Roubaix.

With the Eurostar transporting passengers to Paris in just over an hour and to London in hour and forty minutes, it's occurred to me more than once that the city could have a turn as a half-way staging point—perhaps a place for time-starved execs from the two cities to meet over a waterzoï, or for freelancing creatives on a joint assignment to know each other over some of those distinctive area beers. In any case, the city's got enough people, grit, and quirky regional particularity to continue to rise.

Ryanair Gets More Domestic

Today Ryanair announced that from November on, they'll be flying four domestic routes between Madrid and Alicante, Palma, Santiago de Compostela, and Valencia. Ryanair has been amping up domestic flights within larger countries over the last several months. With these routes, I'm counting 18 domestic routes running or planned to run within Spain, including routes to the Canary Islands.

That's nothing compared to the 22 routes Ryanair runs or plans to run within Italy. Ryanair also flies 16 domestic routes within the UK, most of them to and from Derry or Belfast in Northern Ireland. The airline also maintains three domestic routes apiece in France and Germany.

I'm ready to say that this domestic route approach is turning into the key route map development of 2008 for Ryanair. I expected the airline to slowly but consistently open up additional destinations in places like Bulgaria, Ukraine, Israel, and Turkey over the course of the year. None of that has happened, at least not yet. Instead, we've got more and more domestic routes. In some markets, this approach to route development is clearly designed to provide an alternative to flailing local carriers; in France and Germany, the goal seems to be to simply mark territory, subtly hinting at what might happen if the airline decided to expand domestic routes more fully.

A French Half-Secret: Gîtes

For almost a decade now I've traveled as often as possible. This has meant, in most circumstances, that I've traveled on a serious budget, becoming a connoisseur of many varieties of cheap bed along the way.

I'm always marveling at the existence of cheap accommodations that tend to fly under the international radar—types of accommodation used by locals that don't manage to attract a lot of press. I've written about the Dutch bungalow park phenomenon several times, a few years ago here. Bungalow parks can be an extremely inexpensive way to have a rural or beach holiday in the Netherlands, yet they receive very little coverage outside of the Netherlands, and virtually none in North America.

I've known about France's gîtes for years, but it took my recent trek through Martinique and Guadeloupe to really hit home how amazingly budget-friendly they are. Gîtes take many forms. Some are simple rooms with kitchen facilities. Many function more or less as bed and breakfasts. Some gîtes are spare rooms in apartments and others are free-standing structures. Gîte owners are required to live on the premises or near-by. There are pricey gîtes as well as inexpensive ones, though what stands out is the great value offered by so many gîtes. Even in otherwise expensive regions, gîtes tend to be much cheaper than hotels.

Country road. Marie-Galante, Guadeloupe.

It was on Marie-Galante that the money-saving value of gîtes really jumped out at me. Gîtes dramatically outnumber traditional hotels on Marie-Galante, where there are scores of gîtes with nightly rates in the €40-€50 range. The island's embarrassment of gîtes is fitting. With its uncrowded beaches and relaxed, bucolic vibe, Marie-Galante is an independent traveler's dream.

Check out Gîtes de France as well as Simply Gîtes and Gite.com for listings and information.