Maybe they're writing a travel guide. Maybe that's it. Something like "France on $10,000 a Day" or "See Russia the Way the Czars Saw It" or "First Class with the First Lady." How else to explain the astonishingly bad judgment exercised presumably by Easley administration officials with regard to first lady Mary Easley and her traveling party on trips to France in May of 2007 and to Estonia and St. Petersburg in May of 2008?

The News & Observer's Benjamin Niolet reported yesterday that within the past 14 months, the first lady and entourages made trips to France and St. Petersburg, Russia, apparently for the purpose of cultural exchanges. Larry Wheeler, director of the N.C. Museum of Art and a participant on the Russia excursion, believes such trips might, for example, lead to exhibits at the museum.

Fair enough, but the extravagance on these trips boggles the mind, when one considers they were on the public tab. Regarding France, that included a chauffeured Mercedes-Benz ($27,000), a fancy hotel for Mrs. Easley, her assistant and a state trooper, and $10,499 in airfare. On the Estonia and St. Petersburg trip, business class airfare for the entourage was $34,388, hotels were $11,918, food and beverages were $3,667. The two trips cost a total of $109,000.

According to an expense report, Mary Easley went to France because of a need "to see the ambassador and to visit major museums for sister city cultural arts." The trip included a "Following in the Footsteps of Monet" tour -- five months after a major Monet exhibit closed at the state art museum.

Wheeler vigorously defended the Estonia and St. Petersburg trips, including the food expense. He acknowledged that one bill was probably "outrageous," but said, "We wanted to try one of the good restaurants and wanted to show Mary a good Russian experience."

The tab at the restaurant was over $100 a person and included entrees such as leg of pheasant, and rabbit with black truffles and foie gras. The same night of that dinner, the state was billed for $175 in food and drinks at the hotel. "It could have been for hors d'oeuvres and drinks. I don't know," Wheeler said. And he noted that at the fancy dinner, state Trooper C.H. Alford "didn't eat much." Alford mostly stuck to state limits on spending during the trip -- $7.50 for breakfast, $9.75 for lunch, $19 for dinner.

OK, then. State Auditor Les Merritt clearly needs to review this trip. The state's travel policy prohibits "excess costs, circuitous routes, delays or luxury accommodations and services unnecessary, unjustified or for the convenience or personal preference of the employee in the performance of official state business." That's a good policy, respectful of the taxpayers.

Yesterday, Governor Easley defended the trips, and his own recent business recruiting trip to Italy, as being of potential benefit to the state. But someone with the governor's office should have recognized that lavishly funded trips of this nature would raise perfectly valid questions. In hindsight, the trips look bad. It's a pity someone didn't see that with foresight.

Of course governors and those associated with them have to travel. And no, they shouldn't have to stay at a campground and eat beans out of a can. But there are other forms of reliable transportation besides a chauffeured Mercedes-Benz, and healthy eating places that might have leg of chicken instead of pheasant. When public funds are involved, restraint needs to be on the menu.