Layover days feel decadent. I did not set an alarm. Our room had an electronically controlled garage door type shutter for the window. I closed it in the early hours as the sun started coming up. We barely woke up before breakfast finished! Look at us.
I had declared I was doing absolutely nothing the entire day. Jacinto couldn't decide if he should ride, or take a day off after 19 days in a row. In the end, he decided to go see the medieval city. I was enticed by the ramparts. Going uphill to the old city was a negative. But, ramparts! How many times will I be here? I had better go.
Some days you get lucky. We happened to be in Briancon during a medieval fair. There were vendors of food and goods, all dressed appropriately. Many participants walking around were also dressed in period clothing.
There were all sorts of activities set up right at the entrance for children. There was jousting (with a wooden horse on rails that went past a shield), sword practice with stuffed bags, and more. Later we saw an art activity that was decorating a big piece of cardboard, that when finished, turned into a castle complete with four turrets. I wonder where the factory is for cardboard castles?
Ramparts - I wanted ramparts. We walked along the edge and down towards the bridge. There was one lonely security man sitting under an umbrella. I thought he might turn us back, but he responded to my greeting, and said nothing more as we continued on.
The entire fort/city/bridge is part of a UNESCO site. It was designed by Vauban for King Louis. I enjoyed walking the quiet back streets. The atmosphere in town was joyful. There weren't too many people this early in the day. I think the best thing I saw was all of the little kids playing in the drains in the center of the streets. I saw a few adults dip their toes in also!
Eventually the sweat stains on my shirt spread further and further. We debated eating. It was a little early. But if we don't eat now, we will be eating late. In the end we decided on a restaurant lunch in the medieval city. There's not too many times in my life I can say that.
It was a satisfactory day off. My calves are sore now from all of the steep hills. I was happy to take a shower, and rinse off my sweaty clothes. Jacinto got the wiggles and took another walk in the afternoon to the post office to mail a post card. We hope the box he chose was a mailbox. It was at the post office building, and was also yellow, with two slits in the top. It seems likely. Then he was on to the grocery store to top off our supplies. I suggested a new jar of pickles. Who knows if they have pickles in Italy. Pickles were hard to come by in Spain, but have been no problem to find in France. He didn't want to carry pickles up the pass.
Speaking of tomorrow and routing. While doing research for this trip, I found mention buried in a journal's comments of the ride up Col de l'Echelle as being a nice ride for morning coffee. I ended up routing us that direction. It is ten more miles than the typical route over Col de Montgenevre. It looks like a gentle climb except for the last mile or so. I am mentally prepared to walk that if I must. It appears that a restaurant near our hotel is open 5-midnight tomorrow, Monday. Perhaps Italy doesn't follow the Monday closures that are common in France?
This has all been quite an adventure for us newbies to European travel. You old hands know how things work - me, I'm cracking raw eggs on the breakfast table!
Do other people think the big croissants are the tastiest? Jacinto likes to make a taco with his by adding ham and eggs. You and I might say sandwich.
The breakfast lady had to give me a lesson on the egg cooker. Jacinto brought me an egg to the table and asked if it was already cooked. I proceeded to crack a raw egg on the table! Lesson learned. Soft boiled eggs take 8 minutes, hard boiled eggs take 10. Just an FYI. Those Americans. They know nothing!
Mike AylingWe had one of those sand glass egg timers for boiling eggs. I am sure it was only three minutes for soft boiled. Bring a small saucepan to the boil, lower eggs into it and three minutes later remove for soft boiled. Maybe lots of eggs in the device shown lowers the temperature Reply to this comment 1 month ago
The man in the medieval outfit was flipping cold water out of the spring onto passersby. Jacinto did not find it amusing. The woman in the right of the photo rotated herself round and round to get thoroughly soaked.
Jacinto wasn’t excited about another tart. I hadn’t eaten one yet, so I went ahead and ordered a blueberry. I asked for ice cream, it came with whipped cream. We had quite a bit of trouble getting that first spoonful. The crust was firm. There was a creamy layer under the blueberries.
