France French Life French Provinces Hotels & Lodging Paris Restaurants Shopping Travel Trip Planning Writing & Books: France French Life French Provinces Hotels & Lodging Paris Restaurants Shopping Travel Trip Planning Writing & Books
by maribeth
Comments Off on The Riches of Paris and The Riches of France Now eBooks
The Riches of Paris and The Riches of France Now eBooks
The Riches of Paris: A Shopping and Touring Guide
If you’re headed to Paris soon or are just an armchair traveler that enjoys curling up with your eBook, may I recommend my books, The Riches of Paris: A Shopping and Touring Guide and The Riches of France: A Shopping and Touring Guide to the French Provinces. They’re perfect for Francophiles interested in knowing more about the places they’re discovering.
The eBook versions of my classic guidebooks come just in time for spring/summer travels to the French capital and the provinces of France. How handy it is to pull them up on your mobile device or eBook reader to find out about the most interesting places and products to savor.
Art & Culture Hotels & Lodging New Mexico Restaurants Shopping Spas The Southwest: Art & Culture Hotels & Lodging New Mexico Restaurants Santa Fe Shopping Spas The Southwest
by maribeth
Comments Off on Two Brief Stays in Santa Fe
Two Brief Stays in Santa Fe
The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assis in Santa Fe, New Mexico
My boyfriend, Steve, and I have managed to visit Santa Fe, New Mexico—an almost six-hour drive from Telluride, Colorado—twice within the past year and a half and we’re already plotting our next trip. (That one will surely include exploring the ski mountain.) Each trip was short—only two nights a piece—and we didn’t even step foot in one of Santa Fe’s amazing museums, but still, we felt far from cheated. For us, it has been enough to just chill and breathe in the heartwarming, southwestern ambiance for which this town is known. Just like going to Paris and whiling away time in a corner café instead of scouring the Louvre, in Santa Fe during both stays we just strolled around and admired the beauty of this magnificent city, the oldest incorporated state capital within the United States.
Art & Culture Hotels & Lodging New Mexico Restaurants Shopping The Southwest Travel: Art & Culture Hotels & Lodging New Mexico Restaurants Shopping The Southwest Travel
by maribeth
3 comments
For Off-Season and Year-Round Enchantment: Taos, New Mexico
Contemplating Nature’s Beauty at Hacienda del Sol in Taos, New Mexico
Ahhh-hhh, off-season. Anyone that has lived in a resort town knows the true meaning of off-season. Whether it occurs in the winter or summer, spring or fall, this lull in peak travel times provides a much-needed respite from the busy-ness of high season. In Telluride, Colorado it means tons of available parking spaces, no lines at the Post Office or grocery store and a certain quietude akin to a ghost town, something that delights some and bores the heck out of others.
Most don’t mind this downturn of activity, since many take advantage of our seasonal slowdown (during the spring and fall) to go off and seek fun for themselves elsewhere. Since the mountain closed two weeks ago, we’re in the throws of off-season now, also referred to as shoulder season and in the case of the spring off-season, mud season.
Many people take off for exotic locales for as many as six weeks travel; others find their bliss within a two- to six-hour drive from our southwestern Colorado mountain town. Indeed, we’re located just a few hours away from some of the best recreation around in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, all sunny and warm destinations this time of year where spring arrives with the intensity of the desert sun.
Colorado Hotels & Lodging Mountain Living Restaurants Shopping Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride Trip Planning Writing & Books: Colorado Hotels & Lodging Mountain Living Restaurants Shopping Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride Trip Planning Writing & Books
by maribeth
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KOTO Fundraising: Fun and Great Giveaways
KOTO Radio: The Soul of Telluride, Colorado
Join me today, Thursday, March 20, A LITTLE EARLIER at about 6:20 pm (through 7pm) in Telluride, Colorado and within the outlying area and on the internet for my Travel Fun talk radio show. This will be a special live show for KOTO fundraising featuring a variety of movers and shakers from Telluride’s hospitality/tourism world. I will be giving away lots of great premiums including lodging stays, restaurant and retail gift certificates, books and even ski lift tickets in exchange for a donation to KOTO.
KOTO is a local NPR station and one of the few entirely community supported radio stations in the country. Please consider making a contribution to KOTO, so that we can keep community radio alive and well in America. That’s also a way of showing your support for Travel Fun! Please email me from my Contacts Page with your pledge or donation. Many of my Travel Fun interviews are posted on this blog as podcasts here.
Colorado Shopping Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride: Colorado Shopping Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride
by maribeth
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Finding Happy Feet at Bootdoctors
Standing Comfortably in My Cozy Boots Awaiting My Clients at Telluride Ski Resort
Ouch, with almost a hundred days a year in my ski boots, I often feel the need for a foot massage. Sadly that’s not part of my regular routine and I’ve yet to hear my boyfriend volunteer for that job. I am, however, careful to have a proper fit with my ski boots in order to assure the best performance on the slopes and to stop any potential irritation at the source.
It’s been a busy winter and I’ve been in my ski boots most days since mid December instructing with the Telluride Ski & Snowboard School. A podiatrist once told me that stilettos spurred the invention of podiatry. I’d guess that ski boots have also played a part in the need for treatment of disorders of the foot and ankle although fortunately most ski boot issues can be remedied with the right help before real problems begin.
Food & Wine Romance & Relationships Shopping: Food & Wine Romance & Relationships Shopping
by maribeth
Comments Off on Fifty Shades of Grey Wine
Fifty Shades of Grey Wine
Fifty Shades of Grey Red Satin
“If you spill the wine, I will punish you, Miss Steele.” —Christian Grey
Mon dieu. Not only might you not want to be punished (or perhaps you do), but you don’t want to lose a drop of Fifty Shades of Grey Wine from acclaimed novelist E.L. James. Who doesn’t love white silk and red satin, especially when it comes in the form of wine?
Floral aromatics of lychee, honey and pear lead off Fifty Shades of Grey White Silk, a primarily Gewürztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc blend. Aged in stainless steel, it’s both delicate and rich in character.
Fifty Shades of Grey Red Satin, a decadent blend of primarily Petite Sirah and Syrah, fills your mouth with a full-bodied deliciousness of black cherry, cocoa, caramel and vanilla. Hmmm, and you thought Christian was yummy.
No date for Valentine’s? How about spending a titillating evening with yourself and the Fifty Shades of Grey book and wine in hand? Or, spice it up with your hunny and surprise him or her with a Fifty Shades of Grey excerpt, accompanied by one of these smooth wines.
The combination of love and wine has never been so bold.
Art & Culture Colorado Denver French Life Shopping: Art & Culture Colorado Denver French Life Shopping
by maribeth
1 comment
Passport to Paris at the Denver Art Museum
The Beach at Trouville by Claude Monet
THIS JUST IN as of February 5: The Nature as Muse: Impressionist Landscapes from the Frederic C. Hamilton Collection of DAM has been extended through March 24.
Allez vite, vite, vite! Go fast! Only about ten days remain for you to see the magnificent Passport to Paris exhibition at the Denver Art Museum (DAM). I went earlier in the month and it felt like I was transported to Paree for an hour and a half of sheer delight. Truly my heart sang as I wended my way through the suite of three exhibitions that make up this show, a smartly-chosen trifecta that focuses on French art from the late 1600s to the early 1900s. From the grand works executed during the reign of Louis XIV through the more well known paintings of Poussin, Boucher, Pissarro, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and other greats, here French culture and society are revealed to the visitor in one of the most effective manners I’ve ever seen. As you saunter through the galleries that make up this show, it’s easy to understand how Paris became the center of culture and the tastemaker for all of Europe.
Colorado Fashion & Style Shopping Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride: Colorado Fashion & Style Shopping Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride
by maribeth
Comments Off on The Look on the Slopes: Early Ski Season 2013-2014
The Look on the Slopes: Early Ski Season 2013-2014
Me Posing at Telluride Ski Resort
Life has been getting pretty colorful around here at the Telluride Ski Resort lately. Most of the mountain is open and we’ve had many classic Colorado bluebird days. The holiday visitors have yet to arrive, however, I’ve been seeing oodles of punches of color throughout our sparsely populated slopes. I’ve been so busy with wrapping things up at my desk and ski school training, that it wasn’t until last weekend that I spent some quality time perusing this year’s fashions at Bootdoctors, one of my favorite outdoor gear and clothing retailers in T-ride. This time, I wanted to chat with the girls in the shop—Sooz and Pam—and get the lowdown on this year’s look on the mountain. And, of course, how could I resist trying on a number of outfits and even modeling my favorite one here for you?
