A little break today from Paris.
Last March after I visited friends and family in New York, Vincent and I took a three-day trip to New Mexico because Vincent needed to scout locations for his next film. Neither of us had ever been before, so it was an adventure. We landed in Albuquerque but didn’t visit the city until our last day.
We spent a great amount of driving hours on end which I am not accustomed to and another thing I am not accustomed to is driving an SUV, as I hardly ever drive to begin with, except mostly on vacation in Europe, when I generally rent a compact car. We were upgraded to a Toyota Outlander, a behemoth that was so gigantic, I had trouble climbing into it. (I swear it’s almost the size of my apartment!). I felt 10 feet high driving it and became used to it pretty quickly. Thankfully, I didn’t have to parallel park much.
We first went to Madrid, a cool biker/hippie town on the way to Santa Fe, where we only had time to spend an afternoon in, so we didn’t get to see much. However, we had the privilege of staying at the Inn & Spa at Loretto , right in the heart of the old town. We had a luxuriously appointed room, beautifully decorated with local, southwestern décor. That evening we had dinner at Luminaria, one of the best restaurants in Santa Fe, and it deserves its rating. The inventive and incredibly flavorful food was sensational. The best part was when the chef himself, Tony Smith, not only came out of the kitchen to greet us, but he brought us two special desserts, a heavenly, crème brûlée cheesecake and a divine, olive oil cake with Bordeaux cherries, candied pistachios, and white chocolate ancho Chile mousse. It turns out Tony and I had something in common, we were both New York chefs.
Vincent needed to explore two small towns, Gallup and Santa Rosa, and each was about a two-to-three-hour drive from Albuquerque, which was our base. Gallup was mostly closed because it was a Sunday, but it was cool driving on Route 66 and seeing the railroad. Today I am posting photos from Gallup and Santa Rosa, specifically the kooky and colorful signs, street art, billboards, and murals, which told me so much about the place and the local culture.
Please let me know if you would like me to post my other photos of New Mexico.
my family had this exact car, a 1968 Buick LaSabre, in fire engine red
Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3 walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more. In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.
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