My Last Speed-Run of France
I am very fortunate to have (relatives?) of mine who live in a small French village between Antibes and Nice and offered for me to stay a night to show me around. This was a very different experience than the rest of my trip because I felt more like a local, I was cleaner, and there was no planning necessary on my end! I am extremely lucky.
I didn’t know these existed before visiting theirs — but France has all these tiny “medieval villages” (their official term!). Some more touristy than others. The one I was staying in was on the quieter side, which was ideal. These villages are no-car quartiers, so you park in a dedicated parking lot and walk to your home. There were a few bakeries, restaurants, and a lot of art ateliers in this particular one, but you had to drive to the nearest town for groceries or any other shopping. I found this so peaceful and de-cluttering. I got a glimpse of my dream retirement and it ain’t cheap.. so I better get to climbing those teacher ranks.
I adored the architecture of their place. I am in love with houses with exposed stone, a minimalistic mediterranean style, and an overall cottage feel. My house back in Ottawa has that cottage-core to it, and it’s just so homey. The star of their place was the terrace. This was one of the nicest terraces I have ever stepped foot on (also one of the only terraces in general that I have stepped foot on). You could fully open up the sliding doors that lead out, and I’ve added that feature to my list of future house requirements. Food tasted better out here. I can’t explain it. It was magical. You had to be there.
I drank a lot of wine here. Cappuccinos until 11am, and then you switch to wine, and then back to coffee in the evening after dinner, I learned. This was a welcomed habit, and a wine cellar has now found its way onto my house requirement list as well. I will be drinking a glass of wine while cooking now. Once again, food just tastes better. Maybe I was just tipsy the whole time and everything seemed more fun and yummy than it would’ve sober. This is very likely now that I’m thinking about it. While on the subject of food; because I was no longer traveling on my own tightened purse strings, the food I got to try was delicious. France is big on local food, so restaurants often only had 1 or 2 entree selections of fresh and locally sourced dishes they switched every few days according to what’s in season. When we went to Italy, I got this shrimp tagliolini with fresh caught shrimp and local tomatoes. Incredible. It took me so long to behead and peel the shrimp that I had to scarf down the dish to keep up with the table. The shrimpies genuinely looked as though they had swam onto my plate themselves. I didn’t love the eyes staring at me, but my morals flew right out the window upon the first bite. I was snapping necks and ripping off legs and scarfing it all down. The pitcher of wine (6 euros!) helped me achieve unprecedented speeds of consumption. What’s even better is everything is fresh and light so you really can shove an entire pasta entree down and not feel heavy and bloated like you would with most American meals. I biked 17km immediately after this pasta and felt amazing.
I couldn’t get over the views that surround this part of the world. The sea is so blue and clear, the towns are all unique and colourful, the skyline is vast and mountainous. I’m reaching into my bank of positive adjectives here and they all apply so nicely.
I also love how many outdoor activities there are to do, and that you can do them year-round! You can comfortably hike 12 months of the year in one town and then an hour away you can ski in knee-deep powder for the entire winter, and then two hours drive and you’re back in palm tree beach territory. It’s crazy. We went on one gorgeous hike, where at one point you’re trekking up this huge area of wild thyme and it literally smells like you’re inside an Italian pizza. There was a full 360 view from the top, and a portion of this was a clear shot of the French alps! One day I’ll be on the that side looking down on this peak.
Plus, our lunch was french cheese. I could’ve died happy in that moment.
The next day we went for a bike ride along the San Remo coast in Italy. The couple hosting me pops down to Italy regularly for coffee, a meal, or a market because it’s so close. I think Europe’s proximity is its most attractive feature. I hope to take full advantage of this one day, whether it be backpacking or in retirement (likely both!).
I’ve decided that the way I want to travel is backpacking through the mountains of Europe, and getting in some city sights or local towns when I’m traveling between trails. There are so many European treks I’ve added to my to-do list:
Tour du Mont Blanc (crosses through France, Italy, and Switzerland and leads up to the highest peak in the alps!)
Camino de Santiago (a bunch of routes through Spain)
GR20 (crosses the island of Corsica)
GR10 and GR11 (crossing the Pyrenees, 10 is the french side and 11 is the spanish)
Alpe Adria (another big chain of trails crossing Austrian Alps)
Alta Via 1 (Italian dolomites!)
Madeira Coast to Coast (across the island of Madeira)
There’s tons more I want to do down in South America, and over in New Zealand/Australia. Europe-wise, those are the big ones. It’ll obviously be a list I add to and chip away at throughout my lifetime, but I have the time to knock quite a few off in the upcoming years!
Well folks, that concludes my month abroad. I’m about to embark my last overnight train (not bus! Decided to ball out for my last night). Thank you for reading and following along! This reached a much wider audience than I anticipated, and I appreciate it! I hope this was as entertaining for you to read as it was for me to write. I look forward to picking this back up when I find myself out in the world again.
Goodbye, for now,
Beda
