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Wednesday, Sept 19th, 2007
Sitting at dinner last night, in the second very good restaurant in Saint-Etienne, I asked our waiter why it was that there were at least two good restaurants in the town, and, as far as I could tell, not hotels of equivalent quality. He laughed and said that he didn't have an answer (but that he basically agreed). On balance, though, I think I'd rather have good restaurants than hotels :-).
Lidia has in the meantime informed me that I misunderstood her request for more detailed information about cuisine: she actually wants me to say nothing more about food. Unfortunately, for her, she has only limited enforcement capabilities at the present time....
So, last night I had a very nice Confit de Canard, with pommes sarladaises that were not quite how I prefer them (which would be super-thin and heavily caramelized), but which had lots of garlic as partial compensation. Mmmmmm. The previous night the highpoint was the salad, or more precisely the salad dressing. I'm not quite sure what they added to the basic vinaigrette (and they refused to tell me, citing the official secrets act), but it was intoxicatingly good. And the dessert (nougat ice-cream, laced with caramel sauce, in a bed of whipped cream on a crepe) came in a close second.
And that's probably enough of that, at least if I want to keep using this keyboard: too much saliva dripping on the keys will have negative long-term effects, I'm sure.
Just a short hike today (maybe 3.5h, I'm not sure, it went so quickly), up to the Plateau d'Auron, whose purpose-built ski-resort was actually much nicer than expected, and then over the Col de Blainon (2013m) before a short descent to Roya (1500m). Californian landscapes -- everything golden due to the long drought -- plus picturesque European ruins (the valley has clearly known better times). Very nice.
We arrived around 2:30 to find the refuge shut and a message from our host announcing that he'd be back around 5PM. Luckily the weather was near-perfect, there was a nearby fountain for rehydration, and I had had the unusual foresight to buy a paper in the morning, so the enforced lounging about on the patio in the sun was more than tolerable.
I felt unfit and bloated at the beginning of the walk today -- a result in part of the two days of inactivity and twice a day restaurant visits, and in part (it turned out) because I really was bloated (too much garlic last night). As a result, I tried to maintain a decent distance to my fellow hikers :-).
The Refuge here in the tiny hamlet of Roya seems very nice: newly renovated, run by a young couple (he is from the area, she is from Montreal), and with a cat and a wine cellar. The cat just brought in a lizard, and I'm going to start drinking the highly barrique (oaked) Corsican red wine the owner recommended. Given my choice of subjects above while sober, I feel that I should perhaps stop now.
