Saturday June 21
Dolphins this morning!! They were aways out but could still clearly see them jumping. What a treat!
Market day in Sartene. Got there nice and early (8:30) to get a good parking spot. A little too early since the market hadn’t opened yet…..half the vendors were still working on their set ups. Had petit dejeuner across the street and watched them all finish setting up. A man (oldish) in a nice new sporty car had some trouble maneuvering around the baracades…..which were up for obvious reasons…..and got stuck, the dragged the gate a few feet until it hit a truck. Another guy helped unhook the gate from his car and then he just drove off! Couldn’t see that side of his car but there had to have been quite a bit of damage to it because even the truck was scraped up….oh well! No one seemed to bat an eyelash….
The market, in the main place, is quite small but with all the essentials. A few jewelry stands, pottery, veg, meat and cheese stalls and a fish truck. And the guy selling furniture…..mattresses and chairs etc. all set out on display.
Found a pretty bracelet for Shelly (sister-in-law) with little silver elephants and amethyst stones ….a nice present for her for doing the estate stuff for my parents. Got Linds (daughter) a couple of bracelets…silver stars and the one with shells that are the “eyes” of St. Lucia….cute story. I bought a nice little pot….for sugar maybe?? Got Kim (daughter-in-law) some myrtle soap and sel de bain. Stocked up on the saucisson, cheese and veg.
Story of St. Lucia http://www.lespierresdecorse.com/PrestaShop/en/content/7-the-eye-of-saint-lucia-legend
Sartene is really a very nice place! We were lucky we got there when we did though because it was crazy busy by the time we were leaving at 10:30.
Back home, unpacked, read and lazed around for a bit before lunch then down to the beach for a couple of hours. Water was calm and pleasant today. Got burnt 😦 ….one knee and half my back??? Even with sunscreen on!
Went to Chez Antoines, at the marina, for dinner tonight. Thought we’d try the lobster (homard) but just way too expensive….it would have been at least 120E per meal! Had the sea bass (loup) instead, Ken had the St. Pierre, both were really good. For appies we had verrine du saumon, tomatoe and avocat, which came with a green salad. A glass of pastis to start and pink wine with dinner. Total bill for the 4 of us came to 120E. All was good….even the fish with all the damn bones!!.
Sunday June 22
Off to Porto Pollo and Filatosa this AM. Left around 10 and it was already incredibly hot. Filatosa has a great little museum with bits and pieces of the relics found on the site. It cost 10E and 2E for the booklet. It is the most elaborate and organized site with the museum and little speaker boxes along the way that you could push a button for you language. Very interesting and informative. The museum is still run by the Cesari family which was interesting because of Dorothy Carrington’s book and her reference to them. The site is great and shows not only the menhirs but also a rough outline of a community or settlement. It is all in the middle of a farmer’s (Cesari’s??) field, cattle and all….bales of hay, outbuildings etc. There is an olive tree that is supposedly over 1000 years old. It’s very lovely. Very, very hot though, so glad we went earlier. Would have been horrid there in the middle of the afternoon. Had a lemonade at the restaurant to cool down a bit. There’s also a nice little artisan shop with some great jewelry and beautiful hand woven scarves. Rae bought her girls a couple of cute bracelets.
Filatosa https://www.filitosa.fr/en/
Enroute to Plage de Cupabia stopped in Porto Pollo for lunch at a little restaurant near the marina….always seems to be great places to eat at marinas! It’s a very cute little town with beautiful beaches and views of the mountain to Sartene. Very scenic and surprisingly quite a few people. Many places to stay around there….and many gorgeous beaches. Lunch was excellent! I had moules gratin which were delicious….sopped all the butter/oil, garlic and gratin after with the bread….yummy! Ken and Glen had pizza….really good with all really fresh goodies on it.
Found Plage de Cupabia but there was absolutely no shade and we hadn’t brought our umbrella. It was way too hot to just sit there. Interestingly though….the guys at the store in Filatosa told us that up until this week the weather had been terrible. Cool and lots of rain. He said the local “old” people hadn’t seen it this green in June since the 1940’s.
Decided to just head back home to our beach. Rae and Glen went for a walk to the bakery for bread, Ken snoozed, I read and got stuff ready for dinner, then went for a swim.
Good dinner with all the leftover bits! And beer and wine 🙂 Tomorrow we’re heading north to Calvi and will stay overnight somewhere around there….maybe two…and then head back thru Corte.
Monday June 23
Three hours he (Madame’s husband) said it would take to get to Calvi…..hah!
Left bright and early to Calvi. Took approximately 2 hours just to get to Ajaccio, so good to know for when we have to get to the airport. The road (coast road) started out very windy and got a lot worse. Stopped for coffee and a croissant at a little café overlooking a beautiful bay. From that point we wound our way up and up and up. Past some of the most beautiful bays and coves with gorgeous beaches. Some very beautiful little downs clinging to the sides of the mountains. Between Piana and Porto is the Calanque de Piana….absolutely amazing! The views in every direction are stunning…pink/red/rust colour rock cliffs and towers against the blue sky and water can’t , brush etc.) But the views were spectacular….if you weren’t the driver!! THEN we hit the canyon!!
From Porto just about all the way to Galeria the road is even narrower. Very, very narrow! Rock face straight up on one side and straight down into who knows where on the other side. This road is shared with TOUR BUSES!! In some places it is NOT wide enough for two cars to pass, let a lone a bloody tour bus! Luckily we only seen them parked at lookout points and didn’t have pass one anywhere along the way. The beauty of this area managed to make up for the stress of driving through it. We started to see what looked like cow patties at the side of road??? We thought it must be something else…..then low and behold around one of the very narrow curves….walking along the side of the road is a cow!! How in the hell it got on the road was beyond us. There must have been a little valley or something that we missed or that poor bugger had been walking for a long time!
The road finally started DOWN the mountain, still windy and curvy but a little wider and less cliffy. Came to a nice little rest area and pulled over so Ken (the driver) could take a bit of a break. He’s really a good driver thank goodness……as he says “I want to live!”
We kept thinking we’d see Calvi around the next corner but it was still a little ways off. 32km took us over an hour!
La calanches de Piana & Reserve Naturelle de Scandola – UNESCO World Heritage site http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/258/
Finally arrived in Calvi at 3PM…..not 1PM like we’d hoped, which was already adding at least 2 or 3 hours to what Marie’s husband had told us.
Found a hotel room/suite for 4 at the Calvi Hotel. TV didn’t work! Still didn’t after they fixed it. Late lunch of pizza at a place on the beach.
Calvi is a very pretty place but very crowded and touristy. The beaches are lovely but packed with chairs and umbrellas that you can rent from the bars…and if you don’t you can’t reallt use the beach in front of them. There is another beach further along that can be used by anybody with no bars. The water is very clean and very shallow for a long way out. The view of the town and citadel from there is great. And the bay with the mountains in the background is beautiful. R & G wandered into the town and Ken and I to the beach. Had a swim and did some people watching…..lots to watch!
At 5:30 is was still way to hot to be sitting in the sun so back to the room, cleaned up and sat out on the deck with a glass of wine and read for a bit.
Headed along the marina and out to look at some of the huge yachts. Some massive ones with the crews cleaning the railings, folding towels, setting tables for dinner and getting ready for their owners/renters or whoever was lucky enough to be going out on them….how decadent! Could see inside a couple of them…..unreal!
Had a great dinner at one of the many restaurants that line the marina, the guys had steaks that were really good, Rae and I had the moules which were really good too but service was probably the worst of any of those restaurants. The waiter was frazzled, running around like crazy…not a very relaxed atmosphere. It was called Le Nautic….ok for a quick meal but not someplace to sit around, people watch and enjoy the scenery.
Walked up to the citadel in the dark. Views down to the marina and out towards the beaches was very nice at night. The citadel and Calvi has a lot of history attached to them…..Christopher Columbus may have been born here, Nelson lost an eye in some battle, sieges and wars, part of the French Foreign Legion is there. Most of it was closed by the time we got up there. It was a bit of a tough walk up and down on the cobblestones. The way is not very well lit.
The old town of Calvi at the top is really nice with lots of narrow little alleys, restaurants and cafes and shops. Back down in the port area off the main drag are also lots of nice little restaurants and touristy boutiques etc. It’s actually very pretty but really crowded, much like the Riviera.
Back to the hotel close to midnight. Very bad headache tonight….maybe all the stress of the drive or the heat or a combo of both. Haven’t decided if we’re going to stay here again tomorrow…..we’ll figure that out in the morning.
Tues June 24
Decided not to stay another night. It would have been nice to wander around a bit more in the daylight but it’s really busy and really touristy so thought we’d go to Corte….maybe stay there.
Stopped at L’ile Rousse on the way. More beautiful coast between there and Calvi. L’ile Rousse is a very pretty little place. We arrived before it got too crowded. There’s a ruined tower down by the marina that looks like it just grows out of the rock. The central square is gorgeous.
Big plane trees down one side with little cafes under them and a statue of Pascali Paoli in the middle. On the other side is the big covered portico that the daily produce market is set up in. It’s a great setting. There are some great little shops and cafes up and down a few streets. It’s a very quaint little place…..I would stay here if I were going to come back and stay at this end of the island! Had coffees under the trees before starting on to Corte.
After leaving the coast we started to climb towards the interior. It’s really very different scenery there. Lots of little towns clinging to the mountainside. Very green and foresty….very pretty.
Corte is awesome! Parked at the bottom in the newer town and walked up and up the little windy streets, some cobbled, some with sort of big sloping stairs….definitely not wheelchair accessible! Wonder what someone with disabilities would do? Many cute little restaurants and cafes. Lots of nice shops and an old monastery (which I couldn’t go in because I was sleeveless and was NOT going back to the car to get my sweater….too hot to wear one anyway!) A couple of nice old churches and the citadel at the top….up way more stairs/cobbled streets. Some of the building are built right into the rock mountainside, all are sort of the beige/grey/brown coloured with shutters and laundry hanging out. Corte is probably one of the most picturesque towns we’ve been too.
Checked at the TI office to see if any hotels had anything but there wasn’t. We had lunch and wandered around a bit then decided to just head back to Tizzano. First though we went to the Gorges de la Restonica…..absolutely fabulous! Just beautiful! 
Very forested valley/gorge with big trees and the fast flowing river full of huge rocks/boulders and crystal clear water. Walked a bit of the trail (GR20 goes thru), soaked our feet and headed back to the car. Was very pleasant and much cooler than up in Corte.
The road back to Ajaccio goes up and up through the mountains with more towns hanging off the sides, stone bridges/aquaducts and deep valleys with that are still quite green for June. Lots of pine trees, very fragrant. A windy but good road. The mountains are the huge jagged ones that we can see in the distance.
Stopped in Propriano for dinner on the way home . Very, very hot today. The temp in Corte was 37C. Cooler back by the water but not much.
Wed June 25
Quiet day today. Up to Sartene around 11 to hit the bank machine and do some shopping. Arrived about the same time the tour buses did….very crowded. Shops, not all but quite a few, closed at 12:30 – 1:00. Very hot again today.
Picked up some cute olive wood cheese boards, for Donna and Steve and Di, shaped like Corsica. Some Corsica shaped keychains that I’ll make into Christmas ornaments, nougat for the office and a bottle of myrtle liqueur that we’ll try later. Chestnuts are another thing that is big here…..
Back in Tizzano, we walked up to the bakery this AM and rented a boat for tomorrow! A very little boat is all you can get without a license. Hopefully the sea is nice and calm otherwise we won’t be going too far.
Made a big pot of soup/stew with all the leftover sausage and veggies….was really good. Spent the afternoon lazing around, reading, snoozing etc..
Went for a swim after dinner…..9PM! Was very nice. Beautiful sunset tonight on the beach but I didn’t take my camera down.
I really like Sartene….it has everything you could want really….views, nice plaza, shops, cafes etc.
Thurs June 26
Another nice day! We rented a dingy….a very small plastic boat with an outboard motor but it went pretty good for having 4 people and a picnic on it! Headed out to sea and finally to Plage du Tralicettu. A beautiful crescent shaped sandy beach……there are actually 3 different beaches there. Parked the boat, went for a swim and wandered around for a while. Very few people. A little further down the beach, out of the maquis, comes a herd of cattle! Cows, calves and a bull. Right down onto the sand at the edge of the water…..some of them laid down, others just stood around with the big bull watching over it all. There were a couple of boys with a big surfboard and a dog. The boys went into the water on the board and the dog tried to swim after them but too far for the dog to go so the boys came back to the beach and the dog hopped on the board with them and away they all went….the dog stood on the back as they paddled. They went over to some rocks and the dog hopped off with them and ran all over the place….they all got back on the board and went off to some different rocks…..really cute and fun to watch.
Loaded our little red dingy back up and back out to sea in search of another beach further up the coast. Found a rocky one, with lots interesting tide pools. Had our picnic there. Lots of shells and fish, even red/pink jelly fish. Off around the point to another small but really nice beach. 
There was a HUGE yacht anchored. “Champagne Lady of London”. We seen it in the marina in Calvi. Must google it later. It must have been 70 feet or more. Quite deceiving sizewise until you get right up to it! It had a whole little marina of it’s own at the back……a thing folded down and out came all the sea-doos, other floatie toys etc. and someone set up a table and chairs with an umbrella! Must be nice 😦
Back on “our yacht” for a little tour around before took the boat back. It was 90E for the rental and 15E for the gas. A pretty darn nice day!
Home for a snooze and went to the marina for dinner at the bar. The plat du jour as sanglier. Rae and I had that……very good. It was in a “daub”. Tasted like a pot roast, not porky at all, which I thought it might be.
Very hot today, even on the water…..new sunburns.
Friday June 27
Nice day today, weather-wise and doing things. Had a great breakfast then sat around until 10 before going off to Olmeto via a backroad. The fields are alive with poppies! Bright red ones….so, so pretty!
We packed our bathing suits because we thought we’d stop a the plage de Baracci but missed it totally and ended up at a vineyard for a tasting. Did the gris (a lighter rose), the rose and the red which was a blend of syrah and Grenache….very, very good! Bought a bottle of the gris and the rose (8E and 6E).
You can see Olmeto from the valley as you approach it…..beautiful town clinging….literally….to the mountainside. Not a lot of parking but found a spot near the church and just hoped it was OK to park. Had an excellent lunch at a restaurant called “La Source”. Great food, service and incredible views of the valley. I ordered the stuffed zucchini…..or so I thought, but ended up the best lamb shank I’ve ever had! Was a huge order and delicious….I ate it all! Would have thought our French had improved by now but apparently not…..although no one has asked up to “just speak English” for a while now….this is good!
After lunch nothing was open….siesta time! But there really wasn’t much there in the line of shops anyway. The town is famous for Colomba (factual and fictional in Merrimee’s book) and the vendettas that she caused. Lovely Franciscan church, which also wasn’t open.
Was very hot again today…..actually thought I might be getting sick!! Drank lots of water which helped so maybe just a bit dehydrated.
Back home around 5:30 and thankfully felt good again just in time for a quick swim and for some gin and tonics 🙂 for the girls and beer for the guys. We also somehow managed to drink our way through a bottle of wine. I don’t know how we do it on vacation……I do not drink this much at home, nor could I and still function!!
Down to the hotel restaurant for dinner, lasagna, more wine and coffee….all very good for 95.50E for the 4 of us. We drank a lot, laughed a lot and had a great time tonight. Everybody feeling a little tipsy.
Market day in Sartene again tomorrow….will pick up some coffee for home and gifts and get the matching necklace for Shelly.
Saturday June 28
Our last day in Corsica!!
Off to the market, not quite so early this time. Bought Linds the St. Lucia shell ring to go with the bracelet and Shelly the necklace to go with the bracelet I bought her last week. Wandered around looking for something to buy for me but didn’t find anything I just had to have. Ken got a couple of tee shirts with the Corsican guy on them. Had lunch, wandered in and out of a couple of shops then picked up the coffee and back home around 2.
Another really nice day. Really hot too. Big, big waves today so off to the beach. Glen went in and got pummeled about but had a great time. Ken and I just went in knee deep, which was bad enough when a wave came roaring in.
Big blobs of what looked like tar all over the beach this afternoon…..probably an oil spill of some sort that was getting washed in with the waves. Discovered we had it stuck all over the bottom of our flipflops when we got back in the apartment….had tracked it all over and right into the showers. The stuff was like glue. We had tried wiping it to no avail, then scraping it, which just made it worse. Finally soaked some paper towels in dish soap and that seemed to be the trick to getting is cleaned up…..what a bloody mess!
Happy hour(s) around 5:30 with the leftover beer, wine and gin and tonic. Just ended up having a salad and cheesebread/toast and the last leftover bits of whatever food we had left. Ken and I went down to the hotel bar for coffee and to get some last sunset pictures from the beach.
Finished packing up and set the alarm for 4AM.
Sunday June 29
Up early, cleaned up and out the door. Bye Les Dunes!
Took about 2 hours to drive back to Ajaccio. Dropped the car off, no problem. No gas stations open so couldn’t top up the tank. Probably wouldn’t have been much anyway….more than 3/4 of tank left.
Flight back to London was good. Arrived a 1/2 hour early. Took the train into London…..got a “small group” discount – 2 for the price of 4 – 60L (UK pounds) return for all of us. At the hotel by 1.
Regency Hotel in South Kensington (now a Doubletree) on Queens Gate. Really nice hotel, smallish rooms, but in one of those regency style row house buildings….very pretty white buildings with black trim and lots of flower boxes. We’re on the 4th floor looking out on Queens Gate and at all the rooftop chimney pots!
Back out the door at 1:30 to a pub down the street for lunch. Ken had fish and chips, I had bangers and mash, Rae and Glen had the roast beef/Yorkshire pudding special.
Was Ken’s first time in London, so we took our time wandering around the area and then on to Harrods. Rae and I wanted to do some shopping so sent the boys to the Food Hall to get coffee and dessert…..fantastic baked goodies in there. What were they eating when we came back? Bloody Crispy Crème donuts!! Really???
From there we walked to Buckingham Palace then thru Green Park down the beautiful tree lined street. Next stop was Westminster Abbey. Seen Big Ben and the Millenium Wheel. Walked along the river toward Charing Cross. Very warm here! Found another pub, the Sherlock Holmes, beer and G & T’s then off to Leicester Square to check out the cheap, or not cheap, play tickets. Stopped at Trafalgar Square which was all covered up because of some Jewish rally/celebration of some sort.
After checking out tickets (will probably do the Jersey Boy’s) went to find Larry’s cousins restaurant on Frith St., La Cantara…..kind of a mix of Spanish and N. African food. We didn’t say who we were just in case the food wasn’t very good….we had a couple of tapas type dishes, which were just OK…..we never did say who we were and probably won’t tell Larry we went!! Walked up to Picadilly Circus (2nd time today) and found Carnaby street…..oh what I wouldn’t have done to be here back in the late 60’s/early 70’s!! It’s changed a lot but fun and lively, with lots of restaurants and pubs, to walk thru and take pics. Ended up at the Picadilly Circus tube station and bought our day pass for tomorrow, then back to the hotel
Long day. Walked A LOT and seen a LOT of London.
Monday June 30
Up early to start another very busy day. Breakfast at the hotel…..continental buffet or 7L for full English breakfast.
Off to Leicester Sq. to buy tickets to the Jersey Boy’s….the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Had to wait for the tickets for 1/2 and hour so we watched them setting up for the grand opening of the movie Mamma Mia in the square. They had brought in big potted lemon trees and people were tying lemons on them!! All the stars were going to be there so much hoopla going on. Picked up our tickets (55L each) and worked our way over to Covent Garden, which is a really neat indoor/outdoor shopping area with some great shops, restaurants and a big market/flea market. Lots of fun to wander around. Down to the Strand and past the Royal Courts of Justice. Very impressive building!
Had a great lunch in a pub….fish pie for me, that was excellent, a burger for Ken. Walked along Fleet street to St Pauls Cathedral. Beautiful church…..just too big to get the whole thing in a picture from anywhere around there. Didn’t pay to go in (18L!!) but did just stick our heads in the door to have a quick look…what we saw was impressive. London is a little odd in that you pay to go into the churches but the museum entrance is by donation!! Probably a better deal anyway! Walked down to the river past the Tower of London…..was going to go in but huge line-ups.
Walked over the Tower Bridge and then all along the south bank. A good mix of shops, pubs and restaurants and streets with neat names like Clink Street and Puddle Dock ! It goes on for miles. Hay’s Galleria (Hay’s Wharf) is a covered mall with more of the same. Stopped for drinks at a nice little pub to give our feet a rest then on past the Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern where there was a “street art” exhibit. The Tate is an old power station that has been converted to an art gallery…..no time to go in this trip, next time.
Crossed the Milleneum pedestrian bridge and caught the tube to go back to the hotel. Had just got on the tube only hear an announcement that there had been a fire at Earls Court station and all Circle Line trains were delayed or rerouted….not good because we didn’t leave time (after 5 already!) for an unexpected tube issue. We got off and walked to a different tube station which meant we had to change trains….seemed like it took forever. Made it back to the hotel just in time for a quick clean up, change and back out the door.
No time for dinner…..decided we’d just have Chinese or Japanese after the play. Made it to the theatre with about half an hour to spare (play started at 7:30) and found out we’d been upgraded to the lower orchestra or “stalls”….so a good deal, I guess! The play was excellent. Good story with lots of great music. Lasted way longer than we thought (10:30). Ate at a little greasy Chinese joint just down the street. Ordered wings and noodles which was surprisingly very good. Back on the tube and to the hotel. It was close to midnight….read for a bit and slept great. Wake up call for 6AM.
Tues July 1 (Happy Canada Day!)
Up earlier than the alarm. Checked our flight to make sure it was on time, had a quick breakfast and off to Victoria station to catch the train back to Gatwick.
Got to the airport only find out that our flight was delayed 4 hours!! A bit of head scratching on that one. Sat around outside in the sun for a bit, headed in and wandered around in some of the stores….bought a couple of books and finally time to board.
Uneventful flight home.
A great trip! Corsica is amazing and worth another visit some day. In hindsight, of course, we probably should have split our time there between the north and south end….a week at each end. We covered a lot of territory in the south but other than Calvi we really didn’t see much of what the north had to offer. Missed Bastia all together and, other than the airport, Ajaccio too, which is where Napoleon was born! The east coast had some glorious beaches, not major resort areas, that would have been nice to spend some time at. But you can only do and see so much and I think we did a pretty good job. We also didn’t get an opportunity to hear any of the Corsican traditional polyphonic songs (a capella) or see the folk dances. Next time! I could live without the myrtle liqueur and chestnut anything.
My Travel Journals 