Vacation vibes

I remember my first dinner at Foça Club Med (short for Club Méditerranée) resort so vividly. It must have been some summer in the 1970’s, I do not remember the year, but there are so many details engraved in my memory. It was not only the food which was way different and much finer than the usual tourist fare, but the whole experience was memorable. We were met by an elegant lady dressed in a long summer dress, who cheerfully led us to a shared table of eight to dine with other guests. Even couples on their honeymoon would share tables with others, connecting and socializing with others was a strict unwritten rule of the village. The restaurant was a semi-open space, no walls but only a roof to cover, had a sense of conviviality with only identical big tables as if attending a summer wedding in a Mediterranean town. We were the only Turkish people at the table, I clearly remember the feeling of having a vacation elsewhere, maybe the French Riviera or somewhere else outside Türkiye. We were hooked from that very first dinner and became regular visitors spending every summer holiday in Club-Med resorts. In my first visit to Foça resort, I was a teenager with my mom, then dad joined us, then my small sister joined our small Foça fan group, tasting her first frog legs there, and then eventually as she grew sipping her first G&T at the Kuşadası village, me having my memorable dinner date at the Öküz Mehmet Paşa Kervansaray in Kuşadası, impressed more by the building than my date, amazed by how a historic monument was tastefully converted to a classy restaurant, maybe enforcing my decision to become a restoration architect in my future life. Alas, all venues were closed decades ago; Foça village once the cool and sexy one is now in sad ruins, young, energetic and sporty Kuşadası village is long gone, but the scent of the nutmeg in the French style buttery potato puree I had in the Kervansaray is still in my taste memory.

Foça Club Med was an eye-opening experience for us, we were amongst the privileged few in the country to experience the first-ever holiday resort in the country. It was the pioneer for tourism in Türkiye, opened in 1967, everything about the Foça venue was new, even the concept of a holiday “village” as they called it was a novel idea. When their architect Jean Weiler visited the site, he had a very clear vision for the “avant-project” he would draft. In line with the initial concept he created, the architects of the newly established Ministry of Tourism realized the actual building project. The buildings were almost hidden in the landscape, reserving at least one olive tree per bungalow, making use of only 10 percent of the area, all units painted in a refreshing bluish lime white-wash, with a strong Aegean fishing village feel.

There was a shopping arcade inspired from Ottoman bazaars, with cubicle shops with tiled domes. There was a small amphitheater, essential for after-dinner shows, another feature strengthening the conviviality, it was almost obligatory to join the show, cheerful GO’s (Gentil Organisateurs) would guide the guests to the theater. GO was a new concept, they acted as bonding agents creating a cheerful atmosphere, encouraging you to dance, to be active, playing tricks on you too, even push you into the pool. Even if they did not pick you to drag to an event, you would run after them in fear of being left out, as if mice following the magic flute. The performances were always outstanding and different every single night. Actually, it was those performances where many talents were discovered. Entertainment and performance were the core elements of village atmosphere, fun factor was the key to an unforgettable holiday. Every single day was a different experience with varied food choices structured around diverse themes, followed by amazing shows and parties, including “white nights” when everybody was obliged to wear all white outfits. Every single detail was to build-up a convivial atmosphere, creating a unique vacation vibe unlike any other. In fact, this approach was not only new for Türkiye, but new to the idea of vacationing, Club Med was a true trend setter even before the term was invented.

When it comes to food, besides the convivial tables, the open buffet system was also a concept introduced by the first all-inclusive Club resorts. Of course, there were always extras one could buy, but crying money was out of the question, guests would have a chain of beads they could purchase upon arrival and pay all extras with those beads. By the way, this was before credit cards were introduced to our lives, a thing about 70’s. The open buffets strictly used local products, those were the years when food import was forbidden in Türkiye, so the village enlivened the local economy, bringing livelihood for the local communities in an era when the words “sustainability” and “locality” were yet to become popular terms in the hospitality sector. Local chefs were recruited, both to cook local food, but also to learn about French and world cuisines. The buffets were abundant with global and local food before the term “global” was a coined term. Emphasis on local cultures and cuisines was crucial, each day there would be a world cuisine visited, culminating in a Turkish night at the end of the week. Visiting for a few days only was not possible, French visitors would come by special chartered flights to stay for the whole week, each day the dinner and the show was planned to showcase another experience. Within a few years there was a skilled kitchen crew, speaking passible French, most recruited in skiing resorts in the winter season. Later that would become almost impossible because of visa permits, challenging international mobility, Turkish citizens becoming quasi unwanted in EU countries. Anyway, those first kitchen crews initiated many other holiday resorts in the country, all adopting the buffet idea and all-inclusive system, and even the Turkish night concept.

Vibe is for vibration, referring to the aura or energy felt to belong to a place or time. To have good vibes for a place is essential for a memorable vacation, the only time where one can take a break from daily responsibilities and duties, escaping from all the toil of working life, a slice of time we can steal from routines, and spoil ourselves. But taking a break from daily life is not easy, it is hard to unwind and forget, and before you get into the mood of enjoying your precious vacation slot, your time is over, pretty much like life itself. Club Med understood this fact very clearly and did everything to get the guests into the unwinding process as quickly as possible. Food was one important tool to get people into the mood from the very first night’s dinner, as in our case in Foça. All the ideas they developed were copied, imitated, sometimes for the good, but mostly for the worse, degeneration, degradation and excess becoming inevitable. Decades after those initial years of those early holiday villages, now I feel it is time to go back to basics, and reinvent those concepts introduced by the club, where the term gastronomy includes not only the food, but the conviviality of sharing and bonding, sustainability, supporting the local, and respecting cultures, and initiating that first spark in the first bite igniting the vacation vibe.