A full week later here I am completing my eccentric photo tour of the French mountain town of Saorge. Today's pictures will complete my collection of 42 pictures of the village. Could I possibly have anything left to say about Saroge?
Sure. For instance, we can talk a bit about their monastery. The monastery is sort of out at the far end of town and does a lovely job of taking in the natural scenery of the area, the history, and the views back at the town. Many of my pictures from the past six days are from the exterior grounds or the inside buildings and terraced grounds and gardens of The Monastery of Saorge.
These pictures of the monastery were not free as it cost seven euros to visit!
But I do think I've aleady mentioned this... price.
Owned by the French government, I will grant that the monastery is kept up pretty nicely. They've also made the place over into a writers residence which must be the kind residency I dreamed of finding when I was younger. The writers, translators, scriptwriters, and composers that somehow landed this sweet gig, occupy the level of the old monk cells, which presumably are redone. There they tirelessly labor on stuff like clerkmanifesto probably, but in French, and of not as high a quality.
There's a communal kitchen too, but none of this was open to visitors.
I'm not keen on the State charging admissions to cultural and natural treasures like national parks and museums and historical locations, but this one was at least worth it. On an ill fated trip to a more famous, more preserved, and more loathesume hill town called Eze, we paid even more money to enter their "Botanical Gardens" which I put in quotes because it wasn't really very convincing as a botanical garden, more a few pretty paths at the top of the town with nice views of the sea far below. But let's not talk about Eze, which is like a lovely well made antique piece of furniture encased in a plastic protective coating. It bums me out.
No, the Monastery was a site built in the 1600's where people monasted, and soldiers occupied, and craftsmen crafted over many years. I even ended up in some sort of tunnel room that was partly painted gold. I think it was a modern art installation. I probably even featured a picture of it here that you would have assumed was the product of my usual fakery, although I might also have a fake picture of it too. Speaking of fakery, many of my 42 pictures featured cats that were rarely real, but the monastery here had a couple of quite friendly cats which makes me feel that all of my other pictures were at least in the proper spirit of the place.
And now you know all there is to know about Saorge!
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