Catchup

St.-Etienne-de-Tinée, July 12, 2013—

HARD TO BELIEVE that it's a week since I've posted here.  Walking in the Alps, the rhythm of each day is so similar that you lose track of time. It's wake at six or so, get up, get ready, have breakfast, walk a few hours uphill, maybe eat a power bar or a sandwich you've brought along, walk downhill, maybe up and down a second time, fall into a gîte or réfuge, rest maybe with a beer, eat whatever they give you for dinner, stretch out your sleeping sack, fall fast asleep.

So here is the account of the last week. I'm sorry it's so sketchy. My photos will fill things out, but not until I get to a real computer. 

July 7, 2013: we were in a gîte that promised nothing at all on first meeting, but turned out to serve a perfectly nice dinner. Spaghetti al pesto; zucchini frittata; roast pork; salad; panna cotta flavored with pastis. It was so nice finally to taste garlic! How I have missed it!

vin ordinaire en pichet

•Réfuge CAF, Maljasset, France

July 8, 2013: we made up for previously missing meals by having two. Lunch: a plate of charcuterie — is anything better than ham with butter, or paté with cornichons? And then an omelette with wild mushrooms.

vin ordinaire en pichet

Dinner: vegetable potage; beef Bourgignon on good Italian rice, salad (I do wish these people would dry the lettuce); cheeses; apple tarte.

vin ordinaire en pichet

• Gîte Les Granges, Fouillouse, France

July 9: lentils, tomatoes, grated carrots, turkey breast in cream sauce

vin ordinaire en pichet

• Gîte GTA, Larche, Alpes-de-Hte.-Provence

July 10: A meatless meal, first we've had, at a refuge that on reflection may have been Buddhist. 

Ratatouille.

vin ordinaire en pichet

 

• Gîte d'étape, Bousiéyas, Alpes-Maritimes

July 11: dinner in a restaurant I recalled from five years ago. I opened with an assiette montagnard: charcuterie, pickled mushrooms, toast with tapenade, and whatnot. Afterward, duck breast with figs, pilaf, petits pois, and a tomato gratinée. Dessert was admirable: marron glacé pudding topped with toasted sugared almonds, with almond-milk ice cream.

vin ordinaire en pichet

• Restaurant l'Étoile, St-Dalmas-le-Selvage, Alpes-Maritimes

July 12: a curious dinner in a huge hall with many vacationing groups, some families, some employee associations. We started with a platter of cold cuts and cheese toasts on nice crisp local lettuce, then went on to elbow macaroni in very light tomato sauce with ground beef patties. Dessert was an apple tart.

vin ordinaire en pichet

• Village de Vacances Le Rabuons, St-Étienne/de-Tinée, Alpes-Maritimes