This cute little country side B&B provided cozy lodging for our 3 days of the race. Located 15 mins or so from the track, just outside the town of Trois-Ponts. The owner, Francois, has handed the property, under the previous name of Auberge du Pere Boigelot, over to his daughter, Caroline. They were totally awesome hosts, and had the most amazing chicken dinner. The food was so good, and since we already had a couple glasses of wine, I forgot to take pictures.

The dining areas are adorned with waffle skillets converted to wall lights. I wanted to take one home, but no such luck. The rooms are Euro small but large enough to register as cozy roomy. No air conditioning, and the windows don’t really open much, so the upper rooms tend to get a little stuffy. But these are sleep over rooms, not luxury vacation. So you’re up in the morning, and home late in the evening. The beer offerings, Lupulus and Lienne, both from nearby micro brews, rate positively in beer circles, and my own world. To be honest, after walking all day, then having 2 bottles of wines, and then trying the Lienne 7% beer, I really don’t remember much. So find one yourself and give it a try.

There is nothing in this area other than fields and the turn-about. But if you’re walking, head back to Trois-Pont. There a couple of bars and restaurants, a grocery store, some wine shops and various little village shops. The population is listed at 2,400 people, so this is a small town by every sense of the word. But the backyard is a great place to take a deep breathe and take the country air in. And if you really are up for it, sneak out back and snatch a fresh apple from the tree. Feel free to feed to remainder of what you don’t eat to the horses, they love apples!

Adding comments later…

Our first stop in our Belgium Formula One weekend was the small town of Waimes, Belgium, to drop off my buddy’s luggage at their hotel. I couldn’t wait to see this place, a 4-star resort in this remote forest area of Belgium? We drive through Malmedy, a town infamous for the 1944 massacre of 84 American soldiers by their German captors. But we drive through Malmedy, and reach Waimes, a small European town of 6,400 people. We arrive at Hotel Cyrano, and I realize, European back country 4-star is a little different than big city 4-star. We park across the street, yes, across the street and bring the luggage over. Stepping inside the hotel, its small, even tiny. We carry the bags upstairs to their room on the 3rd floor via a tiny narrow, twisting stair case. The room was spacious enough, but we were hungry and headed downstairs to eat. Upon walking down and finding the dining area, wow, what a surprise. The main restaurant area was designed in a soft raspbeey theme. Cool!  Very modern, classic European. don’t judge the book by the cover.

I walk through the dining area, and I see a bar. OK, cool, I’m happy now. Then we see the large community tables of the bar side bar area. OK, this is nice. Classic Germany bruhaus style layout, large table where everyone congregates and shares the stories of the day over a cold beer and brats. And fries, don’t forget the Belgian fries. Belgian, not French.

So nice area, large and spacious, I step back to the bathroom, uh, water closet, And notice there’s an outdoor patio area for dining as well. Oh, that’s nice. OK, so there is more room to this little spot than I reckoned. Then I turn and notice, more community tables along a side patio. Cool, this place has a plethora of seating choices. And if you know me, you know how much I love dining and drinking al fresco, so this spot is right up my alley.

So anyway, we sit inside at one of the large tables, get our menus, and start practicing our French for ordering. After all, we are in back country Belgium. Ron and Terri speak German, so we have that covered as backup, but whatever they throw at us, we’re ready.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” We look up in astonishment. We thought we were in a foreign country? These guys all spoke English as clear as anyone from LA. OK, so Ron speaks to her in German, no dice. I try French, and she laughs at me. Oh well, welcome to the new World Order: America is King! The music, the B-52’s. Everyone wears Levis. The t-shirts from Nike, Guns and Roses, or some other Americana marketing slogan campaign.

So on to the food. The menu is…uh…Nuevo Belgian Americana. We order the burger, The Maxi-Burger Chez Gerty. Any burger named after the restaurant, with a hyphen, has to be good. I get a side of Buffalo Wings. Oh come on, I gotta try it to see how funny it’s going to taste. Terri also adds to the order a delicious little side dish of thinly sliced green Apples layered with goat cheese and cold baby shrimp. Reading the description from the menu, it sounds like it ought to be good. It has all the key components of a good dish: Apples, Shrimp, Goat cheese. All favorites of mine, please don’t mess this up.

Oh my! The food was so good, we forgot about heading to the track for an hour. That apple shrimp feta thing was sooooo good. The burger was one of the juiciest, tastiest I’ve had in a while. The bun was some sort of crusty, sour-doughy, crunchy tasty yummy bread. Crunchy enough to hold it all together, light enough to be a flavor supporter of a great beef burger. Add 2 types of cheese, tomato, red onions, pickles and a tasty Chez Gerty sauce, the burger exceeded expectations. Then the B-Wings come out, plump, juicy, dang me! This was not expected at a Belgian brasserie… in Belgium. And those fries! I caused a bit of confusion when I asked for ketchup and mustard. OK, ketchup they understood, typical Americans. But mustard, they were perplexed, but brought out their version, which turned out to be a spicy Dijon mustard. Good enough, the fries were my style: Big, fat and tasty. I even tried the mayonnaise. OK… I tried the mayonnaise, let’s just leave it at that. The food was awesome. Loved the servers, so friendly, loved the layout, fun and open and it was the perfect first meal in a new country after getting off a 24-hour flight. And now, off to the races!

So here I am on the eve of another flight to another country to another race. I come across an article about over packing. The plan is this: if you have problems with over packing, the solution is to pack everything you desire, then remove half. That sounds like a great plan, not! What’s the point of packing if you’re not going to overpack? Or better yet mega pack! Mega packing differs from overpacking. Instead of packing 7 T-shirts for a weekend trip, you pack for every imaginable event that could occur on your trip. Mega Packing is  like Bonobos for travel, an outfit for every occasion.

Imagine if you will: You’re in Milan, standing in front of La Scala. You’re there in a pair of baggy 501 jeans with a Patriots T-shirt feeling oh so cool. Go Tom! Suddenly, Sophia Loren walks by. She looks at you, smiles, walks into the opera house. You’re thinking it is on! You walk to follow her and suddenly you realize…it’s an opera house! Bet you wish you brought that tux now! And by the way she wasn’t smiling at you, that was a laugh. (Turns out she’s a Jets fan)

James Bond, a mega packer, always attends every event impeccably dressed. That white tux jacket is killer, and perfect since he’s licensed to kill. Assassinations, inaugurations, celebrations, he’s ready to go. And you never see him rolling his Tumi down the terminal aisle. That’s because he checked his 30″ roller.  And no rolling of clothes to save space. You never roll Armani.

The point is that he has clothes for every occasion. Light Columbia jacket for breakfast coffee, sleek Hugo Boss ensemble for scaling the outside of Blofeld headquarters, elegant Armani tux for cocktails and dinner with his new femme fatale. And then back to a newer, sleeker Hugo Boss black jump suit for the late night walk of shame and breaking into the main laser control room.

When you travel, it’s great to make plans, but when you travel abroad, you should over plan. It happened to me, I started the day wearing casual loose fit jeans, this was years ago, don’t judge, and a comfy t-shirt that reflected the sporting nature of F1 racing, but also indicated I was a total tourist. What did I care? I’m going to the race then back to the hotel in no certain terms. But after the race, I had to walk the track at Monaco. So my buddy and I are walking along the swimming pool chicane, and we hear music. Oh oh. Next thing we know we are sneaking into the party at La Rascasse. Drinking, laughing, dancing, it ranks up there with one of the great party nights ever. Then, one group we were hanging with, drags me along for the after party. Oh oh… I’m going along, a little more than 3 sheets to the wind, and suddenly realize we are in line at a Monaco night club. And me standing there like a tourist with my Gap loose fit jeans and souvenir t-shirt. Oh crap. Of course we were turned away at the door, and I learned a valuable lesson: Always have a white tux jacket at the ready.

The concept behind Mega Packing is that you don’t duplicate your clothes, unless of course you are repeating the actions of your travels. Yes, when I pack for a race, I include racing shirts for each day of racing. And as a mega packer, I then pack dressings for after race activities that contradict the race wear. What… there’s a casino here? Ok, smooth uptown city style now. Oh, Russian Ballet is making a stop the night we’re arriving? Good thing I packed a jacket. And dress shirt. And tie. Now based on the number of days of my trip, I may not need to duplicate extra cirricular packing. Usually one jacket is enough, but maybe multiple dress shirts could be in order. But yes, if you bring your white dinner jacket, then you may want to bring a black jacket as well. Hey, that’s up to you, but I wouldn’t wear white to both a Vueve Cliqcout cocktail party and a Russian ballet. And that’s the fun of mega packing, having the additional clothes inspires you to be more adventurous in your travels.

One of the push backs of Mega Packing is the service aspect. That so called “lugging” of baggage is easily remedied. That’s what sky caps, bell caps, and all the other caps that provide a service for us are for. Not to be arrogant, it’s their job. It’s what they do and what they enjoy. That’s how they pay their bills same as the work you do pays your bills. You don’t go into a restaurant and then not use the waiter? “Oh never mind, I already told the cook what I want. I’ll get it in a minute or so.”

Feel free to allow them to help. And don’t forget to tip. I like to do $2 – $5 depending on the situation. And it’s not a big deal. Let’s say $5 for sky cap, then $5 for hotel bell, and then reverse, that’s $20 per trip. And for a trip that’s you’re spending hundreds, if not thousands, this extra little bit, the same amount you’re probably spending on Starbucks, makes your trip just that much more special. The more work you do in a trip, the less it feels like a luxurious getaway. And nothing feels more luxurious than getting dressed up for special occasions, so pack those bags and have someone carry them for you.

One point of caution is the dreaded luggage weigh in. These days most airlines will allow 50lbs (23kgs) for your first checked bag. Remember to have a travel luggage scale on hand. Pick one up from Amazon or your local Target or Williams-Sonoma if that’s what’s in your area. The scales can be off 1-3 lbs, so don’t load it to the max. Also, you need to leave room for goodies coming home. Surprising how much a box of Belgian Chocolate-dipped Meringues can weigh.

For that reason, it’s also a good idea to pack a backpack or a duffel bag in your suitcase. If you run a foul of weigh limitations, grab your heaviest items and throw them in the backpack as a carry on item. This is one place where men get the better deal. That one carry on plus one personal bag, which for women is the sanctified albeit limited storage pod of a purse. For men, we can use a nice size mini-case of a backpack to store half a suitcase of goodies for the return flight. That could include a pair of Gucci sandals, brown De Laurentis double buckles and your favorite Prada payment leather in black. And still have room for iPad, assorted chargers and a box of Starbucks Via.

Travel elegantly and Bon Voyage!