Chapeau Noir...Cheap Chic Travels!

Copyright 2006 The Edventures Group

You've got a favorite photo from your last vacation, right?

Mine is of moi in Paris on the Champs Elysee. I'm posed at the edge of boredom. After all, I am an American in Paris, and can't look too exited.

Looming large in the photo behind me is the famous Louis Vutton store. Ladies, you know what I'm talking about. Gentlemen, if you don't, you are better off not knowing. This knowledge will cost you.

The Louis store is a temple to designer excess, fashioned as a towering classic leather trunk bag. It has a Land of the Giants feel, and, "the little people" with deep pockets enter this palace of style, awed by its scale and grandeur. The French have built it, and people come. And people buy. Thousands of euros per day are spent there even in the face of a declining dollar by style conscious Americans in Paris like moi.

But I didn't spend. Instead I had my picture snapped in front of the faux leather facade. Me, the queen of faux, I am standing tall in my digital photo in other people's clothes.

You see, nearly everything I wear is lovingly broken in by someone before I buy it. So my favorite photo is me walking a mile on the celebrated French street of stylish dreams in someone else's shoes. Literally. Thrift store or East side NY designer consignment, I've tried them all. But there is more to parlez-vous. I score big in Paris. And I don't even go into the Louis store. My favorite photo chronicles me at an important moment. I am on the verge of the biggest fashion score of my consignment career. Unknowingly, I'm ready to hit the mother load. And those who are spending their euros in the Palace of Vuton have a lesson to learn that I will soon teach on the streets of Paris: cheap can be so chic.

Killer style in Paris is not housed on runways or within the grand walls of the fashion giants, but shelved in small consignment stores in the side streets of the City of Lights. And it is style that takes you to scale new fashion heights...or in this case widths.

What I bought in Paris is a hat the size of Texas, Black. Le Chapeau Noir of any woman's dreams, the hat that rivals Audrey Hepburns's Ascot straw, designed by Edith Head for My Fair Lady. One of a kind, and one hell of a price. Now, think back to Louis Vuton where my "sistahs" are laying down thousands of dollars to carry a genuine French Louis purse. Me, I am opening my own Vuton knock off bag, a clutch Louis -- direct from Canal Street NYC--spending 30 euros. And it buys someone else's black shiny straw hat. Okay it's bigger than a pizza. But Kate Winslet regally wore a similar the chapeau in the opening scene from Titanic. Why not me?

And did I need a hat that dramatic? Absolutement!. I was going to a wedding on the Siene the next day and I would meet the challenge of style suited to a Parisienne yacht wedding at dusk. And I would do it without forking over the equivalent of a mortgage payment. That alone created high drama.

As I carried my purchase to the taxi for the ride to the hotel, I had a feeling that the hat had changed everything for me on that trip.

My first clue that things were going to be different was simply getting in a taxi.

I love to walk in Paris, but my fabulous hat was presenting problems as I carried it along the Rue St. Honore. It was drawing sidelong looks from passersby and getting in the way of pedestrians as I navigated the twisting street, so for time and convenience sake, we took a cab. The hat rode in the front of the taxi while my husband and I shared the back seat. Little did we know that the hat was now in the driver seat for the rest of our stay.

Another indicator that the hat was exceeding its purchase value came later that evening. Upon returning to the room from dinner,I scolded my husband for moving the hat to the hotel's window ledge risking the chance that it might fall to the courtyard below. He emphatically denied touching the bargain, thus giving way to the obvious: either the turn down maid had found the hat irresistible as moi and had tried on the chapeau, or the hat had taken it upon itself to travel.

The allure of the 30 Euro French chapeau continued. It inspired me.

The next evening, I wore the hat with a consigned, strapless cocktail dress, making me feel like some cross between Andy Mc Dowell in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Natasha in Rocky and Bullwinkle. I bought black lace stockings and had the overwhelming urge to don a pair of sleek black sunglasses to top off the effect.

So strong was my impression of a Parisian somebody as I stood across from the Louve, that the doorman of the Hotel pleaded with me to return to the lobby. He was trying to hail a cab to take us to the River Siene. The hat was stopping traffic. Horns blared and French curses filled the air. Even the most jaded Parisian seemed taken with the sight. A tour bus group of Japanese visitors nearby me, could not resist pointing their cameras," Le Chapeau Noir" became the final stop on the tour. I found myself instinctively taking on the pose in the Louis photo, look bored. Look stylish.

The hat had was now in charge.

The rest of the evening was memorable for the Chapeau Noir. It was the hit of the yacht wedding, challenging the bride's own tasteful beige tulle hat, and mocking it with its striking presence. And did women love it. The hat was passed around from guest to guest, photographed to the point of distraction. Women who did not smoke cigarettes lit up when wearing the hat. I suspected that my theory about the chambermaid was true. The hat was irresistible. It had to be experiencd. It danced the night away on the heads of young and old and finished the evening at the Bastille where it was worn briefly by a charming French waiter who served up the last bottle of champagne at five in the morning in an all night café.

It was the last time I saw my treasure.

As much as I loved my chapeau noir, I felt it belonged to the world. And I also knew that I was boarding a flight back to the US in a few hours and barely able to get myself on the plane after an all nighter in Paris, I entrusted my hat to a friend who lived in NY City. She promised to bring the hat home at any cost. Yet, my other theory would hold true. The hat, set free from the consignment store, had its own plan...it wanted to travel.

Since then, the Chapeau noir has journeyed through Switzerland, Italy, Britain and France. It graces the heads of lovely women, friends and friends of friends who are taken by its chic, cheap charm. It has smoked endless cigarettes, drunk countless glasses of wine and has, I suspect, even witnessed trysts.

It is lent, borrowed and returned, over and over. And its power to make drama wherever it goes makes it killer style. It is the subject of emails that have flown back and forth from the USA to the UK to Paris.

And like a child that has a special place in your heart, that you've set free, it is missed. You want it to come home.

In short, fini. I want my chapeau back.

So sometime soon I will board a plane to Paris and bring my summer treasure home. Adding it to my collection of clothes that other people wear, I will use free air miles and stay with friends when I collect it, keeping the cost of owning the cheap 30 Euro hat from breaking me as I claim it for myself again. And this time, I plan to return to the Louis Vuton store on the Champs Elysee and take a new travel photo. Moi, in my beloved chapeau noir, not outside the temple of style, but inside the extravagant interior. I will pose for this photo beside the Louis Vutton bags wearing a million dollar smile and a 30 Euro hat, that, if it could talk, would render it priceless.

Quelle photo...An American in Paris, not looking bored, but looking tres stylish in a chapeau noir that travels, taking all who wear it to fabulous heights of glamour.

Chamonix Mont Blanc

Nestling in the shadow of Mont Blanc - Europe’s highest mountain at 4807m -Chamonix lives and breathes mountain history. Chamonix has long been hailed as a mecca for climbing and mountaineering with bearded mountain men in de rigour battered alpine gear seen striding around town and regaling unfortunate listeners with tales of leaping crevasses, dodging rock falls and climbing peaks. There’s Mont Blanc to be summated, the north face of Les Drus to be tackled and Les Grands Jorasses to inspire. Indeed, Chamonix first came to prominence as a summer tourist destination in the 19th century and the first cable car opened at Le Brevant for summer walkers.

Now Chamonix is just as famous for its winter activities as one of the most challenging ski resorts in the world including the world famous Vallee Blanche - Chamonix’s most well known off piste adventure. Starting from the Aigille du Midi -one of the most visited and stunning panoramic view points in the world - and with the services of a guide, you can ski an uninterrupted 22km past blue ice formations, yawning crevasses and tumbling glaciers. A 2.8 km vertical descent through some of the most amazing alpine scenery. Then of course there’s Les Grands Montets with its legendary off piste and glacial variants, the Aiguilles Rouges and the Pas De Chevre.

But perhaps Chamonix’s reputation now deserves a rethink. Sure, there’s still a bewildering variety of ever more extreme sports to attempt, new routes to climb, fresh couloirs to ski, but Chamonix combines its internationally renowned ski area with an elegant, cosmopolitan and bustling town centre. With its cobbled streets, majestic old buildings, rich heritage and open squares Chamonix is much more than just another ski resort and has kept much of its original mountain charm and retains a very French , very friendly and very alpine atmosphere. Indeed, Chamonix is quietly transforming from an enclave of wizened climbers and skiers into a much more international, elegant and varied resort.

Yes, the climbers still flock to Chamonix in the summer and unwashed skiers bustle to be the first up the mountain to carve their tracks in the snow; but now Chamonix attracts a far more eclectic crowd. You’re just as likely to find Channel opening up opposite a local climbing shop as the local spit and sawdust transforming into a swanky bistro. That’s not to say smoky local French bars crammed to the rafters with burly mountaineers aren’t to be found, it’s just that now they’re jostling for attention from a mixed clientele.

There are an enormous array of activities for the visitor enjoy. With an impressive sports and swimming complex, beauty salons, spas, golf, ice rink, cross country skiing, paragliding, husky sledding, guided snowshoeing, cinema, museum, casino and weekly market with fresh local produce; and a plethora of shops, designer boutiques, bars, restaurants, terraced cafés and night-clubs, Chamonix offers a combination of skiing, old town charm, après ski and shopping, which few resorts can match.

There are also plenty of options when it comes to dining out. All tastes and budgets are catered for from the obligatory burgers at Poco Loco, to traditional savoyarde fondues at L’Atmosphere and nine course gastronomic delights at the two stra Michelin Albert Premier. Or, within 20 minutes, you can nip under the Mont Blanc Massif through the Tunnel Du Mont Blanc and arrive in Courmayeur in Italy with it’s own very special regional varieties. And, if you tire of ski gear shops, salami and penknives then Annecy is a mere hour away - the Venice of the Alps - with its beautiful old town and glistening lake. And did I mention the shops?

This is without mentioning the stunning high mountain scenery: the tumbling glaciers, soaring Aiguilles, one of Europe’s highest cable cars - the Aiguille du Midi at 3842m - the Mer De Glace, the Merlet wildlife park and arbre adventure for kids and families and a beautiful alpine town and traditional mountain villages and hamlets dotted along the Chamonix valley. Whether you are looking for a skiing or snowboarding holiday in Chamonix, or an alpine summer holiday with mountain biking, canyoning, hiking, climbing and more Chamonix has the answers.

CDC Issues Health Alert Notice for Travelers to USA from Hon

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) on Saturday began distributing cards at airports receiving flights returning directly from Hong Kong warning travelers returning to the United States from Hong Kong & Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China & Hanoi, Vietnam that they may have been exposed to cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

The cards are being handed out by quarantine officials at Chicago, O'Hare International Airport; Los Angeles; old York City, JFK International Airport; Newark; & San Francisco. These airports are the only U.S. airports receiving direct flights from Hong Kong. No U.S. airports receive direct flights from Hanoi or the Guangdong Province. CDC officials expect to expand the distribution of cards to Anchorage, Alaska & the territory of Guam later today.

The cards also offer guidance designed to assist physicians in making a diagnosis by advising travelers to tell their physicians about recent travel to the affected regions, & whether they've been in contact with individuals who displayed symptoms of SARS.

The travel cards warn those returning from the three areas that they should monitor their health for at least three days. they're also advised to contact their physicians if they become ill with a fever accompanied by a cough or difficulty in breathing.

The CDC advises physicians & other clinicians to be alert for travelers who:

As of March 15, 2003, the CDC had received reports of SARS cases in Hong Kong & Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China; Hanoi, Vietnam & Canada, Singapore & Thailand. For that reason the World Health Organization has issued emergency guidance for travelers & airlines so that persons displaying symptoms of the illness can receive immediate health care & can be brought to the attention of public health authorities. These individuals are also advised against travelling while ill.

Have a fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher;

one or more symptoms of respiratory illness including cough, shortness of breath, difficulty in breathing, hypoxia (deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching tissues of the body), X-rays indicating the presence of pneumonia, or respiratory distress; &

one or more of the following:

History of travel to Hong Kong or Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China, or Hanoi, Vietnam within three days of symptom onset;

Close contact with persons with respiratory illness having the described travel history. Close contact includes having cared for, lived with, or had direct contact with respiratory secretions & body fluids of a person with SARS.

Additionally, airlines should:

Alert the destination airport of any passengers meeting the case definition criteria;

Arriving passengers who are symptomatic should be referred to health authorities for assessment & care;

The passengers & crew should provide all contact information for how passengers can be reached for the subsequent 14 days to airport health authorities.


Aircraft passengers & crew should be informed of the person's status as a suspect case of SARS;

Fewer Rooms, More Style

One of the reasons boutique hotels are so popular is because they directly oppose the accepted hotel normality of hundreds of rooms and bland service. Their refusal to treat guests as anything other than honoured visitors means that they spend time, money and energy developing a hotel where you feel comfortable and at home. This can only really be achieved with low room numbers.

Hotels in this sector have discovered that travellers are willing to pay for accommodation that is different in design and where even full occupancy means they’re not queuing for breakfast or waiting for room service to answer the phones. Instead, fewer rooms means more space and better service, and an increasing number of travellers are taking this option.

Space

Space is important to travellers, particularly those for whom the hotel is an integral part of the experience. Whilst other holiday makers or business travellers simply use a hotel as a base for sleeping and eating, boutique hotel guests want to feel that they can spend the morning drinking coffee and reading in the public areas without feeling like a nuisance, or relax by the pool without worrying about fighting for poolside space with other guests. By taking a definite decision to reduce the number of bedrooms so that each room has more space and by fashioning public areas that guests actually want to use, boutique hotels create a unique atmosphere that appeals to guests.

Design

Boutique hotels are often based in older, traditional buildings where creating larger guest rooms means considerable changes to the internal design of the building. Sympathetic architectural changes can be achieved with careful planning and this allows hotel owners and their designers to maintain and incorporate original features into a more modern, spacious room design. From keeping original windows to fitting the most modern of bathrooms, clever design allows these hotels to provide fewer rooms, whilst at the same time preserving the essential features of the building.

Service

The smaller the number of guests, the better the service can be. This is a concept that’s fully understood by the boutique industry and it strives to ensure that standards of service are exceptional. Any contact that the guest has with a member of staff should be a positive one and, in many cases, members of staff are trained to anticipate guests’ needs, ensuring that they are comfortable asking for anything, including help with activities outside the hotel as well as the facilities within it.

Lowering the number of rooms in a hotel, combined with good design, quality fittings and excellent service all combines to make a hotel unique and that's what today's travellers want.

How To Spice Up Your Outdoor Cooking with Online Camping Recipes

Copyright 2006 Karin Manning

There’s something so amazing about cooking in the outdoors. The scent of fresh air, the harmonious singing of birds, and the awesome panoramic view seem to beckon the beauty of one’s soul and enhance the senses. That makes cooking outdoors such a wonderful experience.

Simple outdoor cooking is good enough in itself - toasting marshmallows, hotdogs and stuff. But, have you ever wondered how to fix up some gourmet meal or inventing a new dish while you’re outdoors?

Now, that sounds like a lot of fun. In fact, that’s very possible. But, of course you need some preparation on this one. When your family is out there in the open and far from the comforts of modern civilization, it’s always advisable to be prepared for anything, whether it be a bear attack, bad weather, or surprising circumstances like your children getting sick.

Even cooking itself needs a whole lot of preparation. The cooking utensils, ingredients, food containers, including the camping recipes must be carefully laid out so you don’t mess up and ruin the chance of having a great fun outdoors.

So, you may be asking where can I find all those camping recipes? Well, choosing your camping recipes is not a problem at all. If you don’t have that much patience in scanning your recipe books, you can just go online and browse on lots of camping recipes available on several campers’ sites. There are tons of camping recipes for every kind of person all with unique and interesting names – from a 15-minute recipe called ants on a log, which kids would love to a 45-minute hunter’s stew. Also, if your family’s health is a concern, there are websites that offer healthy camping recipes of all sorts. For those who just can’t do away with fast food and junk foods, there are also available mouth-watering camping recipes that you would surely love. Some websites even have gourmet camping recipes for people who are used to dining out in expensive restaurants, which you can duplicate in just a matter of minutes.

The variety of camping recipes online gives you and your family a chance to experiment on several food ingredients, which may enhance your cooking skills.

But wait, before you start downloading some of these camping recipes, bear a few important things in mind. When picking among these camping recipes online, be reminded of your family’s food preference and tastes, as well as the availability of the ingredients of the recipes you’ve chosen. Consider also those camping recipes that are healthy for everyone.

Finally, don’t go picking any camping recipes just because it seems good enough for your taste buds, choose that which would fit to your budget also.

Como Controlar Adiccion a las Apuestas

Dicen que el primer paso para detener una adicción es admitir que tienes un problema. Aquí te presento una serie de consejos para tratar a un ser querido que es adicto a las apuestas de una forma efectiva.

Tratar con alguien que tiene una adicción a las apuestas puede ser doloroso. Tienen una tendencia a desconectarse de la familia y de los seres queridos, entonces a continuación te explicare lo que debes hacer en el caso que alguien que quieres es adicto a las apuestas.

Algunos de los pasos son difíciles, sin embargo tienen un muy buen resultado y son importantes tener en cuenta la hora de actuar.

La primer cosa que debes hacer es esconder tus objetos de valor, y si esta persona vive contigo, deberás mantenerlos bajo llaves y si eso no es posible entonces llevarlos a un banco bajo una caja de seguridad.

Si esta persona es tu hijo o pareja, entonces deberás limitar su acceso a tu dinero. En muchas circunstancias gente ha gastado los ahorros familiares y ahorros para la universidad de sus hijos. Entonces si puedes obtener el número de cuentas de la persona indicada, si no es demasiado tarde, y cancelar todas sus tarjetas de crédito.

En algún momento deberás confrontarlo. Cuado lo hagas, es importante no gritarle y no enojarse; sino diles como te afecta lo que están haciendo. Asegurate de que la gente cercana a ellos estén ahí para ayudarte y apoyarte (sin contradecirte).

Es importante que todos tomen turnos y le digan a la persona como su adicción a las apuestas ha afectado sus relaciones, sin hacerlo agresivamente, sino tranquilamente. Esto ayudara a la persona a darse cuenta que la gente que lo quiere esta viendo algo que el no ve, y comenzara a mirar a sus acciones con otros ojos.

Recuerda, el objetivo de confrontarlo no es de hacerlos dejar de apostar completamente, pero ayudarlos a reconocer que tienen un problema. Y buscar ayuda profesional.

Algunas personas recomiendan que lleves a la persona a Encuentros de Adictos Anónimos a las Apuestas, pero yo no creo que sea buena idea. Aunque esta sea una organización que ayuda a aquellos con problemas de apuestas a alejarse de ellas, creo que algunos necesitan una sesión o dos con un psicólogo o un consejero entrenado para tratar con adictos al juego.

Luego de que todo este dicho y hecho, deberás estar listo ya que la mayor parte del tiempo el apostador seguirá apostando, quizás lo intenten hacer en secreto pero no se detendrá completamente.

En la mayoría de las adicciones, la persona con el problema necesita tocar el fondo, y luego cuando haya perdido todo lo que significa para el importante (familia, amigos, trabajo), comenzaran a ver el problema y buscar ayuda. Si conoces a alguien que no admite tener el problema de ser adicto, te recomiendo que si ya has intentado tu mejor esfuerzo, deberás estar listo a alejarte, y recuerda que en algún punto debes abandonar a un barco hundido antes de ir abajo a buscarlo.

Para encontrar más información sobre el tema puedes buscar en Apostadores Anónimos.

Things To Know About Travel Consolidators

Travel consolidators are high-volume ticket brokers. They purchase large scale tickets and sell them to customers for a lower price than the published fares.

A travel consolidator buys a large amount of tickets directly from the carriers or the airline companies. This way they get discounted prices because of the volume they purchased. They negotiate with these carriers so they get big discounts. Some travel consolidators even have their own contracts with the airline companies.

However, they only negotiate for a specific region. Somewhere they know that is a popular destination, this way they could sell their tickets faster. Some consolidators are even owned by the carriers themselves. Big airline companies normally have several travel consolidators under their wing. These are done because there may be instances that a number of seats are not sold for a specific flight. What the carriers and the consolidators do is to sell these empty seats at a lower fare. Consolidators buy the extra tickets at a lower price and sell them to travelers on a lower fare than the published rates.

It is not publicly known how consolidating works for travel. Consolidators get their tickets in a much lower price than an ordinary person because of the volume of tickets they bought. This way they could resell the tickets at a much lower price to travelers. But they do make profits. Yes they sell tickets at a lower rate but that doesn’t mean that they are sacrificing their profit. Everything is all about money. And they well know how to make money. They also sell the tickets with the same price as the published fares. This way they earn a bigger profit.

They have their own market. Some consolidators sell their tickets to travel agents alone and some sell them both to the travel agent and the public. Some also sell their tickets online.

Travel consolidators even come with different classifications. There may be those who only do wholesale, meaning they resell their tickets in volume. Other travel consolidators might be those specializing on the destinations. This means that they only buy tickets on specific regions. However there are also those that specialize on multi-stops or those tickets on fights that have several stops.

Like any other jobs travel consolidators have their own pluses and minuses. They have the privilege of buying tickets below the published fares and have the liberty of buying them until the departure date of the said flight. However, they also have their own setbacks. The ticket that they could buy only goes on a specific route which narrows their market. Another thing is they have to negotiate well because it means profit!