Though I think the mountain village of Saorge would be considered a tourist destination of the Cote D'Azur, it was the first one we went to that felt like getting away from the Cote D'Azur. We were with other tourists on the train, but hardly a glut, more like a small sprinkling somewhat overwhelmed by school groups moving between towns, and though our destination town was sleepy and small, it had real life to it. The people living there, as few as they were, outnumbered those of us visiting. In short, more people were hauling around bags of stuff and running their morning routines on a Friday morning than there were wide-eyed tourists, taking pictures, like me.
The cafe we had lunch at reflected the remove from the fancy coast where we live as well. Ingrained with decades of food challenges in traveling the small country towns of America, it was not a natural adjustment for me to go now to a small village and get a plate of utterly delicious mushrooms for seven euros, pastis and cappuccino for three or four each, and a lovely plate of four good quality diverse cheeses for eight euros. But so it was. And we happily sat out hiding in the shade at an outdoor restaurant table nibbling and talking of our good fortunes and swatting at the occasional annoying fly.
Using the bathroom before setting on our way was its own treat. It was up an impossibly tight spiral staircase and left me free to look around an upstairs interior room of the historic village. Among the 850 year history of brilliant engineering and charming construction feats in Saorge, adding in plumbing everywhere was surely not the least of them.
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