Farnsniente

Up into the Alps for the day

—

in
📍 Soarge, France

Photos

Trip index

Summary

Met up with our guide, Cyril, and (just for the day) travel companions, Brenda and Scott, for a train trip up into the French Alps. The weather was perfect, the views stunning, and the commentary excellent. Passed by picturesque Peillon, L’Escarène and Sospel before disembarking and taking a bus to Saorge-Village. Toured the charming town and church. (Baroque style because the pope at the time ordered that churches be flamboyant). Visited a former Franciscan monastery and had Cyril-made pissaladière and rosé in the beautiful terraced garden. Rode in a van to La Brigue for al fresco lunch and then a drive to the fascinating Our Lady of the Fountains church. Back into the village for a tour including a bee “fortress” and the ruins of a castle bombed mostly to rubble by Napoleon.

Details

Yesterday we did a foodie tour of Nice and we know what those entail. Few surprises. Today we’re taking a train ride up into the alps. We really do not know what to expect, but we know we’re to meet our guide at the Nice train station at 8:00 a.m. 

We’re on time and meet Cyril, a youngish rugby player with thighs like tree trunks. He’s friendly, and speaks without much of an accent. We’re also introduced to the other two people on our tour: Brenda from the Woodlands, near Houston, and her friend, also a Scott, currently living near LA. They wouldn’t be here had the cruise ship they were supposed to board been able to get through the Strait of Hormuz. 

The group goes into the station and looks around. The place is really nice. Nice has been a place people have been sent to since the industrial revolution of the 1800s to find warm weather and clean air. As such a lot of money and effort was put into the train station to make it look nice. There are nods to countries from around the world and different parts of France, knowing people will be arriving here from all those places. Part of the station looks familiar and we learn it’s because its designer was a student of Eiffel and some of the design mirrors the famous tower in Paris.

On the train we again hear how Nice came to be French. We hear about how Italy was a bunch of duchies and provinces up until the 1860s when it was unified. We see a map of the pre-unification map and learn that there were two Sicily’s, one island and a bigger one on the mainland, the same with Sardinia. Fascinating. 

As we ride along, on the train, we see cities at higher and higher elevations. We see one where the guy who invented cement was born. He ground up the rock near where we were traveling through, and then was able to use it to form the base of the Eiffel Tower, which wouldn’t have been possible without that new fangled technology. 

We hear more and more about the early and ‘forever’ tourist trade in the area. People didn’t only come from England but also from Russia. This is why Nice has the largest Russian church outside of Russia. The Russians would come every winter, which was a long trek back in those days. 

We travel through L’Escarene which has the highest viaduct for a train above a village. I guess you have to get your distinctions where ever you can get them, regardless of how many qualifications you have to add. 

We see where there was a bridge built between the newly unified Italy and France. It was built by the French and they were afraid that Italy would eventually be ruled by a fascist, which is was, so they built it not in the logical way, but in a “turned 90 degrees from normal” for the supports so that when the fascists came in, and a war started, which France could more easily destroy the bridge (and they did). 

At the end of our train trip we switch to a bus and continue heading. Up into the Alps. We ride to a city that used to be on the ‘salt route’. Traders would gather salt down at the Mediterranean and transport it by mules, though the Alps, to trade in Turin and such places along the way. The city we visit is so isolated they were able to avoid diseases. Also, it meant that if you wanted to date, your only chance to meet new people from the next village over, was once a year, for the Christmas celebration. 

We visit and tour a Franciscan Monastery. The Pope had green lighted the project (the Franciscan order). The Franciscans made a vow of poverty, all possessions of value should go to help the poor. The monks wore burlap bags for clothes, and a rope for a belt, and prayed every four hours. They because super popular very quickly. But… the Catholic Church was losing the numbers games and so the edict came down, “property vow and all that’s good, but you have to glitz things up a bit to wow the people… we have to get our numbers up!”

We didn’t make the same vow so we hang out in the Monastery garden and drink pink wine and have Passelidier made my our guide. Yummy. We hike back through town and ask about the big boards blocking the bottoms of doorways, and the water bottles filled with water next to the doors. It’s to keep away the cats, so they don’t pee on the doors. Yikes. 

Back on the bus we travel further up and stop for lunch. It’s tasty and we have a great view of the snow on the top of the mountains. It will be gone in another week, Cyril predicts, given the current warm weather (68 degrees) we’re enjoying. 

We tour another town and see how people, a couple of hundred years ago, would use designs above the door to ID what religion they belonged to, their political affiliation, their profession, etc. Also we see how they used the door knocker on the single door to summon someone from the family on the first floor versus the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th, and how the ring on the finger (or not) on the knocker would tell would be suitors to bug off (all females are already married). 

On the train ride back, on a different route, we see how we’re way up high, and we can see train tracks way below us. We’ll be making a huge sweeping arch (like a cork screw) through a mountain tunnel. We go all the way around and are down on that lower track in a bit. 

Post trip we shop and then make a (another) delicious dinner at home… rotisserie chicken, sautéed veggies and salad. A good, if tiring, day. 

Photos

[Note: to view the photos in chronological order, start at the bottom :-/ ]

Home and exhausted we’re ready for dinner and Ron and Karen come through again. Rotisserie chicken, sautéed veggies, guacamole (we’re all from Texas), rocamadour cheese (we’re in France), steamed broccoli, and lentils. Oh, and wine.
On the train ride home, at one point we could look way down and see the track we’ll be on in a bit. The train makes a slow, curved descent, all the way down to where we’re again going in the same direction, only now we’re much lower. Wild.
Of course here too there were tons of flowers in bloom.
Bee keeping was big business and the church ran the show (and made sweet money from the honey). Now it’s a cooperative. Each family and business has a bee hive. The rocks help keep the hives warm and the walls protect the hives from animals.
The designs from 100s of years ago that families used to identify their religious affiliation, their profession, where they’re originally from, etc.
A roman bridge from eons ago.
Beside the church is a river with seven springs. It’s a miracle! (or so they thought). Cyril takes a dip. Brrrr.
At another church we’re let in by Cyril, who is able to get the key. The four walls of this big church were painted by a talented guy using money from very wealthy people in town. The church is hyper remote so the artist figured he had free rein to tell the story the way he wanted to. He does a great job and it’ve very vivid. There are so many panels to this comic book style telling of the life of Jesus. And this was many 100s of years ago. Amazing.
In another church we learn about this guy, saint Elmo. He’s the patron saint of people who transport salt up over the alp on donkeys. Man these saints really specialize these days.
Further along we have a bigger lunch up higher. This is my veal and tuna (really anchovies, I think). Surprisingly tasty.
We take advantage of one of the terraces to partake of some pink wine and pissaladière made by Cyril. Yummy.
The monks raise their food on seven terraces. They’re beautiful.
The monks had few glitzy possessions, but when the church population started falling off, the Pope up at corporate sent down an edict that the churches needed to snazz things up a bit, to bring in more faithful. This was the result. The wood is all local and the shiny stuff is all donated by locals so the monks can still say they’re living lives of poverty.
We visit a Franciscan Monestary and hear about how they lived. Not a lot of frills. They have to pray every four hours so they have lots of sundials to tell them what time it is. Thankfully they have like 350 days of sunshine here so God won’t get POed if they miss a prayer session.
A view of the town, Saourge. It’s spring now but in the winter there’s snow here. Now you can see a little bit left, off in the distance.
It’s a hillside village and there’s not a lot of land. So a building will frequently have four floors, and maybe a different family on each. When someone comes by, say for someone on the third floor, they’d use the door knocker and rap three times to summon someone from the third floor. They’d add a ring on the finger of the door knocker once all females in the building were married. Suitors, don’t waste your time.
We learn about doing laundry, back in the day. The washing space is still there but most people just use the machine in their house now.
Off the train and on to a bus we head up to a remote Alpine village which was on the route of the salt traders. They’d haul bags of salt up and over the alps to trade. We see holes carved in the rock through which the traders would guide their donkeys. It looks pretty rugged.
On the train Cyril points stuff out and tells us stories and shows us old maps and pictures. It’s quite entertaining. The time passes quickly.
Cyril, our guide, you can’t miss either. He’s a jolly young rugby player with thighs the size of tree trunks. We’re briefed along with Brenda and another Scott, our fellow tourers.
We were told to meet our tour guide at the Paul’s Bakery in front of the main train station, you can’t miss it.