Make Time: Saorge Road Trip

As I wrote yesterday, this trip to Saorge France has been a really perfect one so far. I gave a quick update yesterday, including some good pics, but here goes a more in depth detail.

Woke up Wednesday at a hotel in a random Italian coastal town called Diano Marina. Apparently it's popular in the summer but no one I ever talked to has heard about it (i.e. - not that nice). The only reason I chose to stay there was that the price was $44 and I remembered there was a train stop in that town, so I knew I could get back to Ventimiglia in the morning for my trek up to Saorge. So I got up and had some free breakfast, which consisted of yogurt, croissants, and some juice. Simple and easy. Said goodbye to the very nice staff at the front desk and then hauled my packs down a pretty busy road to the train station. No sidewalks. Typical. Got to the train station earlier than I had expected, and so I was able to catch the 8:35am train instead of the 8:51am train. Solid. I knew I had to be in Ventimiglia for the 10:30am train to Saorge, or else I would have to wait until 6:30pm for the next one (NOT HAPPENING). So I got to Ventimiglia around 9:30am and had plenty of time to find my track and relax and wait. Ventimiglia isn't a big place, and neither is the train station, but it was still fun to see random Italians come in and out on the trains that came through. I have to say I really like the Italians I've run into so far. Everyone has been quick to help me, and they have always exuded a warmth about them. When I watch them talk amongst themselves there is always a warmth as well - a type of kindness. I can tell when people are talking who don't know one another, and that's my favorite interaction to watch - always the most telling about both parties. Anyway, I get on my train and about 30 minutes later we come to the Saorge Fontana stop, which consists of a tiny abandoned-looking building - very small. I'm the only one that gets off the train, and I exit on the side of the building and come to a small parking lot with a road in front of it. My host at the home in Saorge, Virginie, told me that I need to go right out of the parking lot, so I head that direction. There are some vagabond-types re-arranging their car as I walk past them in the parking lot, and their dog starts to come after me before they quickly called him back. Random. Welcome to Saorge!

As I walk out of the parking lot and onto this narrow two-way road, I realize that there aren't any sidewalks. I'm thinking that this is all becoming a bad idea, but I keep walking and the views off in the distance are really breathtaking (pics shown in yesterday's post). I come to a tunnel which again, doesn't have a sidewalk in it. It's probably about a quarter mile long, and it's really old and decrepit inside (water running down the side and brown mud all around). Oh yeah, and inside the tunnel it's more like a one-way road, so I'm not only nervous that someone is gonna come in the tunnel, but that TWO cars are gonna come through the tunnel. I start walking in and I hear a car come from behind me, so I move to the right and he passes without an issue. I walk more quickly to get through the tunnel and happily arrive on the other side, however I don't see any town or any sight of a town. Ok. The road continues up to the right and winds around a corner, so I'm hoping that it's right there. Luckily I'm right, and I come upon this very old and beautiful little hillside town - Saorge. Virginie instructed me to just ask people in town where the Gite de Bergiron is, so I do that and the first guy tells me to follow the path and it'll be up the hill near the monastery. OK. So I start walking in town, and the streets are TINY and they wind all over the place. I think I'm heading straight, but who knows. I see some kids playing soccer in a concrete area adjacent to a church. A bunch of parents watching them. I decide to keep going. I come upon a small corridor where there is about 10 old French guys smoking and hanging out on one side and a fruit stand on the other. They all watch me as I walk up, and I ask the youngest guy, who's working the fruit stand, if he knows where the Gite de Bergiron is located. Huh? Sorry, sir, I don't have a clue (all in French, mind you). Once the old guys hear me talking they all start pointing to one of the guys, and suddenly I'm talking to an old guy with an English accent. Classic. He looks at my phone to see what I'm talking about and when he pronounces it out loud, all the old guys laugh and say ahhhhh. It's just up the road if I stay to the left - just past the monastery - about three minutes. Thanks fellas! I head out on my way and I'm sure I made the old guys' day. I'm laughing and smiling to myself as I walk away. Now the road starts getting really steep, and I come up to the monastery and then head behind it, but I don't see anything. Luckily I do see a sign for "Bergiron", so I think I'm going the right way, but then I walk for about a quarter to a half mile and don't see a thing. I'm on a very thin walkway now, and I'm passing littler farms here and there, but now it's really spaced out and I'm getting a little nervous. I decided I'll walk around this one last corner and then maybe turn around, and luckily I see a sign pointing me inside a little gate towards Bergiron. As I walk along one of the stepped plateaus, I see a woman in her 50's or 60's with a huge weedwacker - cutting away at the lawn. I continue to walk and assume she will see me, and as I'm getting closer and closer to the house she finally sees me and I ask if she's Virginie. Yes. ALLRIGHT! I'm here. The old farm house is now in front of me, and it looks like it's been the same since probably the 18th or 17th century. Stone walls and a stone slate roof. Stuck in time. Virginie shows me to my room which is like walking into a cave. It's got four bunk beds, all built into the wall, but I'm the only one staying here. Nice. I'm shown the kitchen and bathrooms and then she excuses herself to clean up. I unpack and then go out to explore some of the land around the house. All of it is so rustic. I take some pics which I uploaded yesterday, and then I ask Virginie about lunch and she tells me that most of the restaurants will close soon so I should get down to eat. Drop my things and head into town, where I find the most adorable little french bistro overlooking the dramatic mountains and the village of Saorge. I included picks in my post yesterday, but wow the food was amazing. I leave there and head across the little path to grab some sausages, wine, and chocolate. I figure I can snack on the sausage as a meal, and the chocolates can be my dessert.

I walk back up to the farm house and take a long nap in the grass overlooking the surrounding mountains. There are trees covering the mountains and if you look long enough you see them all swaying together. It's a beautiful symphony of green that mesmerizes me and then puts me to sleep. So much beauty in one place. It's overwhelming. I sit and think and stare and just enjoy my own little slice of heaven. After sitting for a bit I walk up to Virginie's area in the house and realize it's a whole area for sitting and hanging out as well. Virginie has a friend over, who's name is Sandy, and she tell she she is from England and has been here for 12 years. She said she came one day and never left. Nice. We talk and drink prosecco and Virginie brings out this garlic bread she's made. So good. Then after about an hour or so of hanging out, Virginie's son Felix comes by with his girlfriend, a friend of his, and two others who are hanging out. I find out that Felix has met these people because they all went to a instrument-making school in England. Wow. Cool. Apparently they all learned how to make guitars and violins and cellos. We talk about music and I play Killer Cobbler, my band's album, for everyone. They love it. Great to get such nice feedback from strangers, even if they were just putting me on ;) Felix's friend plays the bass and says we can jam sometime with a girl he knows. HUGE. Very cool. We hang and drink and talk for hours, and eventually Sandy's "partner" comes by - a white haired Englishman named Jos. Very good guy. He used to work on boats for years and then just came to settle in this town and never left. He and Sandy met one night in a small pub in England - the first night that Sandy had decided she was ready to go out after her divorce - and they moved in together very quickly after that. So cool. Very serendipitous. Apparently Sandy kept having dreams about a bridge and one day she saw it in a friend's picture, and then just up and decided to move to where the bridge was located - which ended up being the same town with the small pub that she met Jos in. I love this kind of stuff. Sandy is a very warm woman and so is Jos - good people to talk to and they lift my spirits about what it means to be truly happy. You don't need money and you don't need to be in the rat race. You just need an amazing companion and a nice place to call home.

Everyone heads to sleep around midnight or 1am and I write a bit on my computer before heading to bed around 3am. Such an uplifting and amazing day. I decided that night that I'm going to stay here until Sunday, when Virginie said my room will be full with new people. Sounds good. One day turned into four. This is the beauty of traveling without a fixed schedule.

Today I got up late and had some nice breakfast with Virginie and a guy named Aldes who just arrived to help her with farming. There are farming programs where you can go work for someone and they give you free room and food, and that's what Aldes is doing. I heard a lot of people doing this in South America, so it's cool to see it's here too. Aldes is from Latvia, but he's been all over Europe and in some of the US, and I talk to him a lot about the South of France. He knows of a bunch of towns for artists, so I put them on my itinerary and I can't tell him how thankful I am about it. I've decided to skip town such as Monaco and Cannes because they are just about the money and glitz. I could care less. I want to see more small villages with art and music as the focus, so that's what I'm going to do. More to come on that. After breakfast Felix and his buddy come bye and I hear that they are going to help a neighbor prepare his steppes for potato planting. They apparently get all their eggs from this neighbor for free, so they lend a hand in exchange. Felix told me they've tried to pay for the eggs but the neighbor never lets them pay. Good people.

Virginie tells me that her rate is 25 Euro per night (about $35), but she only takes cash. Of course Saorge doesn't have an ATM, so she tell she I can join her for a shopping trip she's doing. We jump in her most amazing old van (pics below) and drive back to Ventimiglia to grab groceries, cash, and some odds and ends. I get enough groceries so I don't have to go back to town, which saves time and money, and then we head back to the house. So nice to be in a car with a local driving around the mountains. I included some pics below, but I really enjoyed the ride. Virginie is very sweet and funny, and we have good conversations about Italy and France and about her life in Saorge. When we get back to the house I make a snack and then jump on my computer to look up some of the towns that Aldes told me about. I walk around and enjoy the land and now it's about nightfall, so I'm gonna make a snack and then lay low - probably get to bed a littler earlier tonight than last night. There is a hiking trail just outside the house here that takes about 2-3 hours and has some beautiful views, so that's my plan for tomorrow. I also want to go see Felix's workshop, where he's making instruments. Very cool indeed.

I definitely feel like I'm in the right place. There's something reassuring about meeting such nice people and being once again surrounded by music. It's not my home but for now it sure feels right. The only tough part for me is that I really wish all of my loved ones could be here with me. Being surrounded by such beauty - it really is hard not to want to share it with my favorite people. You know who you are - and I miss you.