January 3, 2005. I have a few thoughts on Central France and this little town that is Bort-Les-Orgues. The clouds have come to die here. The winter weather is really something else. It can snow or be fairly warm and sunny, all in the same day. Bort seems to be at the bottom of a pit, but actually it’s on the northeast end of a gorge created by the Dordogne River. There is a dam at one end and the river flows out the other end of the gorge. There are the organ pipes (Orgues) featured on the north west ridge of the gorge and a cross on the south east ridge. Green moss covers almost everything that faces upward. You can hear your own foot steps here. It’s not a place for someone who is lonely. That being said I like it a lot!
On this trip, we drove to Italy and back for the new year. We visited the Ligurian coastal towns of Recco and Sestri Levante on December 31.
The Cinque Terre was explored on New Years Day via train. From our hotel in Sestri, it was nine stops to Vernazza and took 40 minutes, costing 5.40€ each. The guy I had rented a house from on my last visit in 2003 remembered me. I saw Giuliano as we started to hike to the village of Corniglia and passed his property along the trail. He was working in the garden. We enjoyed a nice coffee and some focaccia bread in Corniglia. However, as we relaxed we missed the train down below town and endured the 370+ steps back up into town to kill some time. Later, back in Sestri, we ate dinner at Polpo Mario. I had their signature terrine of octopus. We also enjoyed some spaghetti with clams, a serving of Seabass, some Langostino, gnocchi, gelato, and coffee. We brought our own wine that we had sourced in town for €14. A very nice Vino Nobile Di Montalpuciano.
The next day we drove up into the town Acqui Terme to visit my friends Rita and Andrea. Acqui is perhaps the cleanest and nicest small town I may have ever seen. It has thermal springs, a few nice churches, and a few piazzas to explore. Then we went up to the town of Strevi, where Rita and Andrea, live which is in the middle of a hill and very quiet. Rita really went all out with food for us. She prepared different olives and cheeses on a huge anti-pasta plate. We also had a small beef dish with some of the stew sauce coating noodles in a separate dish. We had cookies and gelato for dessert. Of course, all of this was enjoyed with a couple of different Italian wines... Barbara and Moscato... both from Asti.
Yesterday we drove from the Ligurian coast up into Piedmont for a brief stop in Asti. We soon learned that Italy road signs are like directions to a CIA meeting. Arrows pointing everywhere to every destination and no distances provided. Many of the same destinations appear as different directions out of the same intersection or roundabout! Getting back into France was made benign for only €30 by crossing the Alps via the Frejus tunnel.
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