In now from a long, but very nice day. Knowing what it’s like driving in places like Corsica, I made sure to purchase a Michelin map when we arrived. It’s proved to be a very good acquisition, and coupled with Google Maps run through the Peugeots navigation system we managed quite well most of the time.
Last night on the Michelin map, I found an insert map of Corsica highlighting about 10 circle driving routes on the island. I looked at the two in our area and made a plan to combine them and then cut it down to one manageable route.
The place we are staying in has a wonderful restaurant, but it’s a little pricey. We know that we can find a breakfast elsewhere that may not have all the bells and whistles of the fancy breakfast offered here for a fraction of the price. As we had a tour plan today, we decided last night to skip the breakfast here and to drive down to Calvi, about a 45 minute drive away, and locate an inexpensive meal there. We had planned to go to Calvi anyway.
It was a very hazy sky the greeted us this morning. It was already warm at about 27° when we arrived at Calvi at around 9 o’clock (it would later hit 32°). Moreover, it was incredibly humid! We found a parking lot where we left the car and walked along the harbour into town.
Calvi is the town of about 5000 people and derives much of its revenue from tourism. In this area that’s not really a surprise. However, the town has quite a bit going for it. Lots of tours activities depart from its harbour, and it has a pretty interesting and fortified old town that requires a little bit of a climb to reach. On the way to the walled area we passed through a very nice shopping area where we managed to find our breakfast. The bread and the pastries here are quite brilliant! The tea ain’t too bad and I gather the coffee is OK too. At least there have been no complaints from Annemarie.🙂
The high humidity made the walk up to the fortress town something of a slog. However, the views made it worthwhile, but a sunny clear day would’ve been quite brilliant.🙂
We passed a great specialty store on the way out. Lots I would have enjoyed, but no space to carry it in my gear.
Then it was onward to the main event. A coastal drive to Bocca Bassa! The road running along the coast is slightly wider than one lane. Though in fairness the local authorities have seen fit to paint a white line down the centre along parts of the road. Believe me, it’s mostly just one lane. There is no place to pull off along this 33 km of incredibly twisted and in some places one might say even a bit frightening piece of ‘road’. We were on the outside ‘lane’ where Annemarie was often centimetres from hanging over a cliff face, most of the time without more than a 12cm high line of bricks. Of course, I asked her to take some photos, but her reply was somewhat negative.😂 So I have no photos from this section, but I do have some wonderful memories of a really fun road!
When we eventually came to a slightly better part of the road, as we approached our initial destination, I took up the photographic duties as I continued to drive. After all, there’s the blog to consider!
We got to Bocca Bassa only to find that there was nothing there! Oh well. It was just a way point and I liked the name so much that I figured it would make a good title for todays post. This was as far south as we would travel today. From there the plan was to head up into the mountains to visit some of the villages. We have heard and read that the villages are a must see. It’s much the same in other countries, and we have enjoyed many days of wandering mountain villages over the years. By car and on foot.
The initial plan had been to drive on a dead-end highway, about 10 km into the mountains, which are quite striking in this area. However, the haze was so heavy and low that we decided to move on. Perhaps tomorrow. So onward to the mountain villages.
We stopped in Calinzana which is located on the GR20. It started to rain so we ducked into the early 17thC church Eclise Saint Blaise who I suspect my friend Neil could tell me about. The inside was very unusual with slanted optically patterned floors. You could easily roll a marble from front to back!
The whole feel was a bit different. There were statues of various saints and Joan d’Arc as well. This was pretty consistent in the various churches I stuck my head into all day.
As it was raining we decided to have lunch and a break as we’d been on the road for almost 5 hours. We watched a few hikers go by in the rain and having walked in their footsteps so many times our hearts went out to them. The good news was that it was 28° so no need for wet gear!
The hill towns that we’ve so far seen on Corsica are similar to many of the hill towns that I’ve walk through in Italy and Sicily, but with a quite different flavour. Hard to put my finger on.🤔 Perhaps it’s because the Italian hill towns have many more stone/rock buildings. These seem smoother sided and maybe that’s why, while beautiful, they don’t quite call to me in the same way. They are growing on me though!
We made on last stop on our way back to our base. We decided at the last minute to drive up and see St Antonino, one of the Village du France list, which means it’s been designated as one of the most beautiful villages in France. It was up high and after the climb we came to a lineup of cars and your buses.😩 There was no where to turn around do we just waited it out. Eventually we got parked and climbed up into the old village.
Then it was back to our temporary home where we had fun dealing with a place we are staying tomorrow night and Booking.com. It’s late here after a long day and perhaps I’ll save that story for tomorrow. We are heading further south tomorrow. More odd roads and interesting places lay ahead. A bit of sleep and we will be off again! Love Corsica!
Cheers! Geoff🍷
Distance Walker - Wandering & Wondering! 