Test your stress levels before you bookWritten by Gareth Powell
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• Is trouble with in-laws causing tension within your family? 6 points. • Is there anyone at home or at work whom you dislike strongly? 6 points. • Do you frequently suffer from premenstrual tension? 6 points. • Have you had a resounding personal success, such as rapid promotion at work? 6 points. • Have you experienced "jet lag" at least twice? 8 points. • Has there been a major domestic upheaval such as moving house or having an extension built onto your house (though not including a change in family relationships)? 5 points. • Have you had problems at work that may be putting your job at risk? 6 points. • Have you taken on a substantial debt or mortgage? 3 points. • Have you had a minor brush with law, such as being prosecuted for a traffic offence or failure to have a TV licence? 2 points. As a general guide, a score of under 30 suggests that you are unlikely to suffer stress-related illness or accidental injury now or in near future. Your choice of holiday is pretty much unrestricted in this particular area. If your score is 60 or above, pressures on you are greater than normal. This means you are at risk from one or more stress-related problems. The higher number more relaxed your holiday must be. Note carefully that jet lag gets a score of 8. If you travel internationally more than four or five times a year you will become ill. Bet on it. If you fly over four hours and you do not fly in business class you can add 50 percent to those figures. Which is why you need to carefully evaluate your health before you decide on a holiday which involves very long flights. It can make you quite ill and stuff your holiday.
Gareth Powell is the author of several travel books, has been the travel editor of two metropolitan newspapers and has a travel website - http://www.travelhopefully.com
| | Eating out in Paris on a BudgetWritten by Gareth Powell
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You can have a glass of wine or a tea, typically with lemon, or a coffee and huddle over it for hours without disturbing waiters of Aux Deux Magots, who have seen it all. Always and ever you will see some tables occupied by Parisian lovers. They lean forward over table with their spines concave, their buttocks jutting and their legs intertwined under tables. Looks damned uncomfortable, but they do it by hour. In Aux Deux Magots there was a dark-haired couple - both handsome – who were seemingly frozen eternally in this posture of adoration. If you are on a tight budget, there are many restaurants which serve better than acceptable food at ludicrously low prices. One example is Chartier, in Montmartre, which is at 7 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre. Take Métro to Montmartre, come out into Rue Montmartre and take first turning on your left. This is an immense restaurant, which looks like a set designer's idea of a waiting room for Orient Express – always crowded, always noisy. In old French tradition, waiter writes your order on paper table-cloth. At dinner for two, one had fish soup (great), other fresh shrimps (likewise), followed by veal (better than good) and shashlik (dreadful). To go with this, a bottle of Côtes de Provence rosé and some cheese to follow. Total price 28 euros, under $40. If you are on a very tight budget answer is to picnic. Start off with a loaf of bread. These are called baguettes, cost three francs each, and were glory of France. Sadly, they have in recent years deteriorated because bakers do not like working through night to make fresh batches. So they make them day before and deep freeze them. Another black mark to progress. Baguettes, nevertheless, are still better than any other bread. To buy it, head for a boulangerie. Easy to find – they are everywhere and emit a glorious smell of warm bread. If you want best baguettes, head for shop with biggest queues, Parisians know their bread. Nearby will be a charcuterie – food shops in Paris come in clumps - where you can buy pâte, quiche, ham, saucissons (sausages) in all varieties, especially dried, smaller kind. They will slice up sausages for you. Many charcuteries also sell hot take-away dishes in plastic containers although I tend to avoid these as being too messy. An example: for lunch in a charcuterie in Rue du Faubourg du Temple I bought a portion of feuillette de jambon; a portion of museau de porc vinaigrette; some potato salad and a portion of salade Chinoise. There was enough there to feed me until I was full to groaning and yet it only cost a few euros. Now, if you are a greater glutton than I, nip into fromagerie, which will be somewhere on same block, and experiment with cheeses you have never tried before. If you are quite open with shopkeeper and confess ignorance you will sometimes find a selection of small portions being made up for you as a sampling kit. Lastly, wine. Treat yourself to a bottle with a cork in it. Again, tell wine merchant type of wine you want and that you are learning about French wines and you are poor. You will be pleasantly surprised at friendly advice and assistance you will be given. Where to eat your picnic? On a recent trip I ate my picnic meals in little park at Pont Neuf end of Île de la Cité. Behind me, Gothic wonders of Notre Dame. In front of me, Seine. I ate like a king in solitary splendor. I was alone, but I was not lonely, I had all of Paris around me.
Gareth Powell is the author of several travel books, has been the travel editor of two metropolitan newspapers and has a travel website - http://www.travelhopefully.com
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