I only managed to stay awake until 8:30pm last night, but I slept through until 6am so that wasn't too bad. Aside from some tiredness around 2pm today, which I dealt with with strong coffee, I feel OK.
In spite of my experiences yesterday, I braved the train out to Orly airport this morning. I figured since I was going out of the city, rather than into it, it should be less crowded. I was correct. It wasn't as crowded. It was standing room only, but I could stand upright and had at least 2cm of space all around me, so I was less inclined to thoughts of homicidal rage. I'm still thinking of taking the airport bus out to Charles de Gaulle when I have to come home. Perhaps the hassles of traffic aren't as bad as I fear.
After the dramas of yesterday with "minor incidents" and the subsequent delays, I left for the airport with plenty of time to spare. This meant, of course, everything ran on time. To kill some time I bought myself an overpriced lunch at a cafe at the airport. I really should have practiced my French more before this holiday. It deserts me whenever I need to use it. The lunch menu gave you the choice of a roll, a pastry and a drink. The roll and pastry were easy enough to order - I could just point. The drink was tougher as the fridge full of them was behind the counter. I ended getting water as it was the only thing I could remember how to say. I had planned on getting orange juice - jus d'orange - why couldn't I remember that?!
I flew here on Air Corsica. It is definitely a budget airline. I checked in online and when I got to the airport, not only did I print out my own board pass at a kiosk, I printed out my baggage tag as well. You were required to put this on your suitcase, then put it on the belt and scan everything appropriately and off it went somewhere into the bowels of the airport. I was pleasantly surprised to see it on the baggage collection carousel when I arrived here.
There were several dogs on the plane today. Some in carry cases, but at least one just on a lead. There were more dogs than babies, but the dogs were better behaved and made less noise. There were dogs everywhere in Paris, including the cafes. The streets were quite clean though, no worse than Melbourne's.
My first thoughts on getting off the plane here is that it is very beautiful and very hilly. It is one thing to look at topographic maps and elevation charts, but quite another to see those self-same hills (mountains) with your own eyes. This hike is going to be hard work. I don't think I need to worry about the jet-lag causing me to wake in the middle of the night. I think I'm going to be so knackered by the end of each day that I'll sleep like a log.
For dinner I went to an amazing restaurant called 20123 which, if I'm translating the French correctly, is set up to be the village in the city. I ate inside but it was set up like you were sitting in a village square, with stars painted on the ceiling. You had a jug on the table which you filled with water from the "village" lion's head fountain.
The food was rustic, traditional Corsican food. It was a set menu of 5 courses and you generally got one or two choices for each course. You also got your own loaf of bread to go with it all. The portions were generous. For wine you could choose red, rose or white and either a glass, 1/2 bottle or full bottle. The house wine came from a winery that was either owned by or associated with the restaurant. I'm not sure.
For the first course the choices were a plate of charcuterie or vegetable soup. No points for guessing which one I chose. There was a wild boar terrine, two sorts of salami and some proscuitto. It was all tasty but a bit dry, as if it had been cut some time earlier. The second course choices were zucchini stuffed with minced lamb or eggplant parmigiana - at least that is my interpretation of what I was told. My waitress didn't speak English. I opted for the eggplant dish, which had more cheese and tomato sauce and less eggplant than I would have used but good all the same.
For main the choices were something with lamb, something with veal and something with tripe. The wild boar stew was not available today for reasons I didn't understand. I opted for the something with lamb, which turned out to be a huge chunk of roast lamb with boiled potatoes.
It was tasty but way too much. I noticed that the couple at the table next to me got this dish to share between them. The next course was a hard cheese which came with a pot of fig jam. I didn't get what sort of animal milk was used but the combinatiom of cheese and jam was surprisingly good. For dessert the choices were house made vanilla ice with hot cream (my translation) or Corsican gateau. I opted for the gateau which turned out to be a sweet omelette flavoured with aniseed and topped with a caramel sauce. It came with a scoop of the vanilla ice cream - complete with flecks of vanilla seeds. It wasn't what I expected but was an interesting taste let's say.
After all this food and drink I reeled back to my hotel and so to bed. It was slightly odd walk back. My hotel is on the main street and earlier in the evening it had been full of people and cars. I was worried the traffic noise would keep me awake. However, by 10pm all the shops (cafes, clothes shops and jewellers) were shut and there were very few people and cars. It was a little unsettling walking into the hotel as the front door was still open and the reception desk is actually in a shop front two doors up. There was nothing to stop anyone from walking into the building. In fact, the hotel only uses half of the rooms/flats in this building. I think the others are private homes or offices.
Ha ha ha! Your description of the food was excellent!
ReplyDeleteIt all sounds a little odd - but very interesting.
Corsica isn't like other places. It's a world unto itself!