womantraveler

Tea Time, So Civilized in Paris

Paris, the "city of light" has many awakenings -- and taking time for tea is one of them.  Espresso is a slam-dunk (see next post) but tea is perhaps an acquired taste -- and an acquired pace. And Paris has a true tea culture. It can be lively as a cafe or a subtle reflective haven. I experienced both.

On a miserable spring morning, after standing in line fruitlessly for an art museum exhibit in the cold drizzle (the lines can be interminable whatever the weather), I gave up on Marie Antoinette at the Grand Palais for a Marie Antoinette restorative China tea at Laduree, the renowned tearoom at 16 rue Royale (8th), a merciful few blocks away in the Right Bank's Place Madeleine. Understandably, it was jammed, but accepting the first table in the less crowded upstairs was a smart move. I settled in to a banquette. Laduree, with several locations, is a mixture of a cafe (for tea) and a cake shop. During the emergence of cafes in Paris in the late 19th century, Laduree (founded in 1862) welcomed women, unlike the traditional cafes. Today it is also patissier, chocolatier, confiseur, restaurant and, iconically, salon de the.

Ironies of ironies, my eye lands on the Marie Antoinette -- a delicious China tea mixed with essential oils of subtle citrus fruit, flavors of rose and jasmine flowers, scattered with small pieces of dried fruits and honey. She -- and I -- at that moment in time never had it so good! Laduree is terrific people-watching. My banquette seat along the wall gave a view inside and out -- tourists and locals -- families and solos. Sitting in Second Empire decor, I experienced the modern world. And helped along by a raspberry macaroon.

The next day I was over on the Left Bank in the 6th and settled into one of the Mariage Freres tearooms, at 13 rue des Grands-Augustins. You have to know where you're going on the winding back streets of St. Germain des Pres to land here, nearby the famous restos of Jacques Cagna and Les Bouquinistes. I sat alone in the late afternoon with a myriad of choices, settling in simply with a full pot of "Afternoon Tea" for $12 (my own completely unhurried pot at a white-table clothed table where I could write and think for an hour). The shop downstairs has hundreds of teas from around the world.

"Un parfum d'aventure et de poesie s'evade a l'infini de chaque tasse de the," said founder Henri Mariage back in 1854. D'accord!

Paris Bistros: The Real Thing

How does one choose where to eat in Paris anyway? Quick answer -- a combination of research and serendipity.  Here's a place to go -- Au Bon St-Pourcain. I myself, moi-meme, prefer simple home-style cooking without all the drama. That's harder and harder to find, not because it doesn't exist, but with all the ratings and rankings and (shooting myself in the foot here) self-defined experts that we've all become tend to overlook "le vrai gout."

Upon the recommendation of my driver, who was a budding filmmaker partly educated in LA), I had visited the stunning exhibition of the little-known French foundational Fauvist Maurice de Vlaminck at the Musee du Luxembourg. This exhibition, which closes mid-July is a must-see.

Afterwards, I was meandering toward the St-Sulpice church, of Da Vinci Code fame, when I crossed paths with Au Bon St-Pourcain on a narrow street.

This resto was on my list, and Paris insiders already know about this 26-seat corner bistro (10 bis, rue Servandondi). Imagine my surprise to be the only guest at 1:30 pm. (It's the euro-dollar imbalance, the owner told me with great chagrin. Such establishments are truly hurting this year, even after 20+ years in the business.) But also to my surprise today's "plat du jour" special at 20 euros is blanquette de veau (blanquette of veal), the type of meal that chefs don't throw together at the last minute. It is best stewed for several hours, in expectation of the guests who will arrive. That's the type of care that owner and former Deux Magots waiter Francois (and his daughter Fabienne, who was managing the cozy room) put into the cooking and reception.

This is an "old friends" place. I felt like an old friend -- and was treated that way.

A Dining Rhapsody in Chicago

After a busy client day in the Windy City, trusting my intuition for a light dinner at Rhapsody's bar in the Chicago Symphony Center was really smart. And the choice of a flight of three cheeses with a salad of fresh greens, a crab cake and white wine was brilliant. Going solo on business, I've learned to ask the bartender what's hot -- and usually that recommendation is a winner.

I'm savoring the reminiscence of Raschera (Italian Piedmont), Garrotxa (Spanish Pyrennes) and Tete de Moine (Switzerland), an assortment of both goat's and cow's milk with a variety from sharp to balanced and sweet, different textures, and so on. A glass of the sturdy Sanford Chadonnay just nailed it.

Here's my formula for a successful dinner alone in a big U.S. city as a Womantraveler. Do a little research. Read the brochures in your hotel room or ask your clients for some options. Typically the local office workers drift to the bars and early dinners straight from their jobs, so 5 to 7:30 is the worst. If you don't have a reservation, especially in a busy downtown scene like Chicago, you have to improvise. And I don't typically have huge expense budgets so I do like the bar or light meal options.

Rhapsody was smart because the early crowd is headed to the symphony and the rush begins to dissipate between 7 and 7:30. And, often bar and lounge seating (which I prefer because of the abbreviated menus and quicker service) is pretty jammed. So I got there as soon as I could, in this case about 6:30, and was willing to wait (with a smile). I make sure the staff knows I'm there and waiting patiently. It pays to be friendly -- there are lots of pushy people who aren't. When a seat opens, I take my place.

Another good choice in Chicago was 1492 Tapas Bar at 42 E. Superior Street off upper Michigan Avenue. In a rainstorm, it was a haven -- and my own bar table with an ample choice of appetizers felt novel, was definitely tasty and the budget was right, too. Candidly, I would put it in the "good but not great" category, but it certainly was far above an ordinary meal at a hotel or familiar chain. When I'm traveling for business, I seek dinners out of the ordinary. It makes the day feel not so routine -- and in my  life, every day counts.

April in Paris: Hooked on Fish

My friends got married 25 years ago and spent their honeymoon in Paris. I didn't know them then. So when the subject of the 25th anniversary came up  this year, la voila!...Let's celebrate in Paris! New friends from California, we were coincidentally going to be in Paris anyway. So knowing about "Fish" --  Fish la Boissonnerie on the Rue de Seine in the 6th -- made me very popular. Everyone wants to say we have a neighborhood favorite that we keep returning to in Paris. For me, Fish is the resto for all occasions.

No need to put on your fancy pants. Fish, though not created by locals, is the most local of Paris restos. The owners -- from the US and New Zealand -- lived out the dreams we all have to reinvent ourselves in Paris. The building on the stylishly bohemian Left Bank is old and quaint. Good solid antique stones and half-timbered construction. Sort of a "cave" look, but authentic. An intimate bar (and a no pressure environment place for solo women). A small and cozy dining area. Solid wood tables, benches and chairs, no white table cloths. Welcoming and friendly in a generously multilingual way. English, French, Spanish, locals, tourists, whoever -- we're all treated the same. No pretense, no drama. Upon choosing Fish, we all immediately belong.

I happened upon Fish three years ago, so upon returning twice this year, I tried Fish again each time. It's a Patricia Wells favorite, and as an respected expert on Parisian cuisine, she counts for a lot. And clearly I'm hooked. Why -- because of the thousands of blinding choices in Paris, I know what I'm getting. It's excellent, and it's easy. Delicious, careful preparation, inventive yet simple, affordable and comfortable. Carefully chosen and featured wines, with an extensive selection, from around the world. The Fish-related wine shop, La Derniere Gout, is five minutes away. We hung out for three-plus hours and had no clue of the time. Back home in California, 10 minutes apart, we keep wondering for our next get-together, when can we rendezvous at Fish?

Email for reservations at laboissonnerie@wandaoo.fr. You'll hear right back.

Women Traveling Safely

The Turkey blogs raised some interesting questions about women traveling solo safely. We found this an interesting discussion, along with the comments to our Turkey travel series.

A Womantraveler's Food Delights in Little Rock

What's a womantraveler to do, especially a business woman traveler in a place like Little Rock, Arkansas, when she's seeking a good meal after a long day, and all that's available are local bars and saloons? This happens most frequently in small- to medium-size cities in the South and Heartland America, where the economy does not support the vast urban mix of the Coasts. So I tested my requirements while on a business trip to Little Rock, home of a remarkable library of former President Bill Clinton. What I found here, surprisingly, and one finds in many places that may not have the food snob cache, is a tightly knit sophisticated local clientele and excellent food -- if you know where to go. Our choices -- Flying Fish downtown and Brave New Restaurant.

Trouble is, when you venture in from the outside, great cuisine, a dining location that is nearby your hotel and on your schedule and a relatively tame/mellow environment are not likely to be found in complete combination in places like Little Rock and much of Middle America. Not that these communities don't appreciate the sentiment, but local businesses and the Chamber of Commerce may not have the economic options to focus simply on us womentravelers -- business and solo. In a few trips to Little Rock, I navigated through the scene to develop a working template that applies anywhere.

College Town Graduations: Charlottesville VA

Moms and graduations -- the season is upon is and we greet it with mixed feelings. After four years of making Charlottesville, Virginia, home of the University of Virginia, and my home away from home, it's time to pass on her special delights to the next generation of womentravelers who trek to college towns to visit their students. Wherever your college town, it can be a terrific place to visit as a destination in itself, while checking in with your kid. Returning as a womantraveler from time to time, you can experience why students and faculty love these places. The restaurants are varied and top-notch, reaching out for a worldly clientele, the entertainment options are dynamic and contemporary and the shopping is much more fun, idiosyncratic and cheeky, catering to students who are on the cusp and faculty and parents who are reliving their youth.

Quintessential college towns -- the ones in which the institutions inspire the overall personality of the community -- are precious little secrets. I particularly like Charlottesville, which lies at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in summer when the student population is way down. Unless you plan way ahead, it can be really difficult (and extra expensive) to get hotel reservations because these towns double and triple in size on popular college weekends.

My optimal destination choice is the Boar's Head Inn, where I wake to the misty cooling moisture of a Virginia summer morning. The low blanket of fog will deliver rain or break away for sunshine later in the day. In defiance of air conditioning, I open my to hear breezes rustling across the rolling hillsides, crossing the lake, and landing on my veranda like a breaking wave on the shore. The birds and ducks entertain, trusting as they have become to visitors.

Reminiscent of a vintage Virginia country club, the inn lies on more than 500 acres at the edge of town, fashioned from a grist mill before the Civil War, but with today's amenities -- a city-size sports club, spa, tennis courts, and golf course. It's a perfect base for a visit to the Albemarle County area in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Virginia wine country (more on Virginia wines coming in another post). For elegant dining and attentive service, I return for dinner in The Old Mill Room, the 2002 Virginia Wine Restaurant of the Year and its original interpretations of regional cuisine (434.972.2230). The other more convenient hotel accommodations are Omni, which sits at the foot of the Downtown Mall -- an historic walking street of shops, eateries and galleries, and two Marriott Courtyard (the preferred of two locations is on West Main near the campus, which UVA calls "grounds"). However, many womentravelers prefer to take advantage of local guest houses that offer gracious spaces from single rooms to apartments.

Sleeping Around

Bed wars proliferated at hotels in 2005, and now, thank heavens, we can sleep more soundly. Marriott International and Hilton and its brands (like Doubletree) are among those hotel chains that upgraded their spiritless sleeping platforms into comfortably padded mattresses, softer higher thread count sheets and choices of pillows. Now USA Today reports the trend has taken to the high seas with cruise ships providing plusher mattresses and more luxurious towels.

Happily the onshore hotels are now better for moderate-priced business travelers but they're not yet at the quality of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, who launched the bed wars at Westin and W Hotels a few years back and have brought new sleeping life to their less-plush brands like Sheraton Four Points, or Ritz-Carlton hotels, who have held their firm but pillow-topped-feeling ground for a long while. All in all, the Starwood Hotels and Ritz-Carltons still win for me, snuggly under layers of ultra-soft fabrics and sinking into form-fitting mattresses.

PF Chang's With a Clinton Accent

It's not easy for a woman business traveler, despite all the advances. We criss-cross the US, land in strange places at odd hours and still have to eat a decent meal to fuel us for our next day. Landing in Little Rock, where everyone sounds like Bill Clinton, I wonder what dinner will bring. I soon find out. Bourbon sounds to the left at the bar at PF Chang's pan-Asian restaurant and cell phone chatter to the right. It's a decidedly weeknight Southern happy hour mixed with out-of-area business travelers. I gravitate here because of the predictable menu and convenience to my hotel.

All of which normalizes what could be a jarring scene after a ding-dong long day.

I find an end seat next to the animated stand-up order area but, thank heavens, with a guy to my right with a wedding band who doesn't whoop like the rest. (They whoop a lot in the South.) I also lucked into a seat at the TV end showing college basketball versus the girlie sitcom shows 15 seats away. My neighbor doesn't try to hit on me, which is absolutely perfect. I ease into my Wall Street Journal, as an amenity for a day of traversing the US, and he pencils in his crossword puzzles and talks to his wife on the cellphone. Winding down, like me.

OK, PF Chang's -- been there, done that, in Palm Springs and LA, but never more welcome than in suburban Little Rock. I enjoyed one totally dependable corporate-fostered, quality-controlled Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon Steamed With Ginger -- prepared over asparagus and mushrooms and served with naked brown rice. Healthy eating is possible though not automatic once you get outside of the big cities.

Arkansas, like Texas and other Southern parts, seems to call for the armament of a man. Who else can josh with the bartenders about cars and football??? For me, being able to comfortably settle into the bar for dinner as a solo woman traveler at dependable PF Chang's smoothes the transition, just like the Starbuck's in every airport (including here) and the Pottery Barn in every city of a certain size. As one who typically seeks unique localized experiences, on a business trip it is comforting to arrive late, be starving and know what I'm getting.

New England Coast: Westport, MA

Westport Point, Massachusetts is a fishing village and Atlantic Ocean getaway that most of the world hasn't discovered -- and those in  the know are delighted. Tucked between Rhode Island Sound and Buzzard's Bay at the southern tip of Massachusetts, Westport Point is a 75 minutes directly south of Boston. Accessed by route 88, its rivers, estuaries, and wetlands are fed by ocean tides that raise the water along the marsh grasses 2-3 feet each cycle, then recede to permit quahoggers to wade ankle deep and dig hard clams for dinner.

The entire Westport peninsula consists of many historic villages and fishing towns dating back to Plymouth Colony and connected by winding roads. This fertile region also produces food crops and vineyards with a genuine sensitivity to preserving the land and nurturing organic culture. On a summer weekend, church fairs and town carnivals dot the landscape with quilt and pottery sales and smokey barbecues.