Corsica Part 3: All the rest

Juniper helps make decisions

Sit back, relax... I've decided to just cram all the rest of my Corsica blogging into one final post. Here is a map so you can follow along when I mention some of the bigger cities and towns as I write about them. Here goes!

For the first week of our Corsican adventure, our home base was the capital city of Ajaccio. We were within a short walking distance of downtown Ajaccio, but our apartment was perched atop quite a steep hill, meaning that Clark and Juniper and I were happy to do the trek up and down as much as needed (the town itself was at the very bottom), but my parents were not necessarily always up for the climb. This meant that quite a few times, Clark just ran back up the hill and brought the car down to pick us all up when we were ready to go home - a much saner solution than trying to find parking (see previous post).

Trying to get perspective of how high up we were compared to the town down below

We did not do as much in and around Ajaccio as we had originally planned, due to the general discombobulation with my parents arriving three days late, etc. But we still managed to fit quite a bit in, and Clark and Juniper and I in particular really became familiar with the immediate downtown area. There is a big outdoor market every morning, boasting mostly local produce and cheese and patisseries and charcuterie and some other typical Corsican items. There was also a small but adequate grocery store which we went to pretty much every day were were there - not only for the food, but also for the ridiculously cheap local wine (we sampled a few bottles that were a whopping 2€15 - less than 4$!). Right across from the grocery store was a large town square that we always stopped in to let Juniper run around (it was too steep to let her run around anywhere close to the apartment). This wasn't the most relaxing of activities - it usually meant a lot of damage control. Juniper was particularly fond of practicing going up and down whatever steps or ledges she could find, and trying to squeeze herself through railings that stood between her and the depths below. During the busier times of day (ie, when school let out), her main goal was to put herself right in the middle of the pick up soccer games, bikes, and scooters that zipped their way around the square.

The town square

Besides walking around the downtown and the old city, sightseeing and a little bit of shopping (I got a few nice tops!), we also spent some time in the Museé Fesch. This is a relatively small museum, featuring mostly Italian paintings (it has the biggest collection of Italian paintings in France after the Louvre). It also has some artifacts and other pieces, many of which are associated with Napoleon. (Napoleon, of course, is Corisca's most famous son, having grown up there). The museum's big claim to fame is Botticelli's "Virgin and Child":

One of our first group trips was a short jaunt to "Les Isles Sanguinaire", which you can see here in the background behind me and Juniper, and then a better view of them on their own. Along the way, there is also an impressive Genoese tower that you can climb right up to if you desire - which, of course, Juniper and Clark and I did. Here are some pictures from that adventure:

Another day we braved the crazy crazy mountain pass driving to find "Les Calanches" - some amazing natural rock formations just north of Ajaccio. They were, as you can see, very impressive, and well worth the visit. You can maybe also, however, imagine what it was like driving to see them. This was one of the instances that I was very very happy to be there in the off season, as there were relatively very few people on the road, and we had our choice of places to stop and check out the scenery along the way. Apparently, in high season this particular stretch is just crawling with people and vehicles, and it is very difficult to find a place to stop. I think I would have honestly been too worried about a collision or being forced off the road and spiraling into an epic death to have enjoyed them at all had we been there during peak season.

We also found our way to a remote little beach we had heard about, which ended up being lovely, albeit deserted. It was a cold and windy enough day that no one (not even Clark!) felt tempted to venture into the water. Well, except Juniper. She would have run headfirst if she'd been allowed.

Our second week was spent living in a little villa in Porto Vecchio. This was a swanky resort-style place, boasting pools and tennis courts and access to the water, and only a short drive from Corsica's most famous, most photographed beach, called Palombaggio. Apparently, in the high season our apartment (chalet?) went for a base price of 2000€ a week, not including extras like towels and sheets etc. You could rent jet skis for the day for 500€. You get the idea. It only cost us 500€ for the week, with the extras (towels, sheets, internet, crib, highest), all thrown in for free. However, you could pretty much see the tumbleweeds rolling by when you looked out the window - it was a ghost town. The tennis courts had their nets down (and no rackets to be seen), there was no one to rent any water crafts from, and the chalet was freezing cold. These buildings were obviously designed to keep heat out in the summer, but offered little by way of keeping you warm. So again - a trade off to be there in the off season.

The view from our balcony

There were, however, lots of adventures to be had in and around Porto Vecchio. One of the most memorable was a day trip to a town on the southern tip of the island, called Bonifacio. What an amazing place! The whole town is built on top of these crazy white limestone cliffs, and the main old portion is completely encased in what I would describe as castle walls. Obviously, it is a town that has long felt the need to protect itself from outside invaders and sieges, and has historically been quite successful in those endeavours. This is the same town that I had mentioned previously as possibly being one of the places described in The Odyssey.

The fortress wall around the city

Basically, we just spent the day wandering around, though there were some cool spots, that were, of course, closed for the season. One such attraction was "Aragon's staircase" - a very steep, impressive 187-step staircase inclined at 45 degrees, that is carved out of the limestone and winds it's way down to the water. It was most likely carved by monks to provide access to drinking water, but legend says that when the King of Aragon besieged Corsica's southernmost town in the 15th century, his troops dug up the famous staircase in one single night. We got to see it behind a locked gate, but that was the extent of it.

This is NOT Aragon's staircase. But it is a cool old staircase we encountered.

The town itself, however, was impressive enough on it's own, and simply wandering around was enough to fill the better part of a day. We only thought of it too late, but it would have been lovely to also have taken a boat trip that took you tours of the caves and other attractions around the harbour… we might have gone back one afternoon, if not for some 'car trouble' (more on that later).

You can see Bonifacio in the background

You can see it in the background here as well

Limestone cliffs

Limestone Cliffs in a different light

Also, Bonifacio was the second and last place we were able to actually sit down for a meal out. We had lunch at this lovely little restaurant, and I ordered a local specialty, called "Aubergines Farcies à la Bonifacienne". Delicious! For dessert, it was shared crème brulée infused with chestnuts. Far and away, the best I've had. I have to say, however, I think Juniper enjoyed it more than all of us put together!

Juniper ponders the menu and makes her choice

The cute little restaurant

Juniper was VERY into this creme brulee

Other highlights around Porto Vecchio were some day trips we took in and around these tiny, windy mountainous towns, to various different locations. Though the driving was, as usual, a bit harrowing, I have to say that seeing these little towns and villages, and the breathtaking scenery along the way, was perhaps just as interesting as the destinations. We went to a fascinating museum in Levie, boasting the remains of 10000 year old woman, among other ancient artifacts. It was a small museum, but extremely well put together, and, moreover, open! They were quite pleased and rather astonished to see us, I think :)

Though it was officially "closed for the season", another wonderful sight were some ancient ruins in the Alta Roca region. There was a short 20 minute hike to get there through what I can only describe as a Tolkein-esque, magical forest, and the ruins themselves were in really very good shape. They were apparently where people used to set up shop for trading, bartering etc. What's more is we were able to get a view of the famous "needles" from there… something we had tried to accomplish earlier in the day at a different location (the town of Zonza), but had given up due to the massive fog and clouds that obscured the view. It was like a wonderful bonus surprise to the day! It's too bad my parents missed out on that one, but the hike was a little too rocky for them (ie, big, slippery rocks), and the site itself would have also likely been too difficult to climb up on once they got there. Here are a bunch of pictures.

The magic forest

Climbing boulders

Some of the bartering rooms

At the top of the ruins, with the needles in the background

Close-up on the needles

Clark and Juniper and I hiked our way up to another ancient site one afternoon - this one is much less visited (likely due to the crazy steep 30-minute climb to get there), but was just as impressive. Dating back to 2000 BC, it was again a place were people traded and bartered, and I believe also to where they retreated under attack. It was very well preserved (apparently many of these sites were not even discovered until the 1960s), and the view from the top was fantastic. You could picture, without much difficulty, what it would have been like to be there 4000 years ago.

One of the rooms (with perspective on size)

Of course, we also visited the famous Palombaggio beach, which I had mentioned earlier in this post.

Apparently, during peak season, you literally can't see the sand for all the people squeezed onto it. Certainly, it was beautiful, but not very nicely maintained in November. We spent maybe an hour there - it was, again, too cold to go for a dip, but Juniper tried to break free and catapult herself into the water every chance she got. Here's a couple of little video clips from that day:

Other than these day trips, much of our evenings, at least, in Porto Vecchio were spent making supper and cleaning up (my mom did much of this, bless her soul), and then playing cards after Juniper went to bed. Oh - and eating way too many cookies and chocolate (I found this mint chocolate that was better than any I had ever tasted. We went through at least a bar a day). There was a whole afternoon that mom and Juniper and I spent stranded at the chalet, while dad and Clark brought the car in to be fixed… Clark had mistakenly put octane in a diesel engine, and then driven around a bit. Oops. That was a costly mistake, but at least it was fixed without incident or repercussions.

Then it was back to Ajaccio for a night to reorganize and pack, and we were up at 4:30am to get ourselves to the airport for a 6:55am flight to Paris. Carolina (our landlord for the Ajaccio apartment), had arranged it so that we could drop the car off at the airport, which was amazingly convenient, and saved us a whole lot of hassle and money. In fact, I can't say enough good about Carolina and Eric… they went out of their way to be kind and helpful before we even got to Corsica, and then went way beyond the call of duty once we were there. (If you'll recall, for instance, Eric was my guardian angel when Juniper and I landed in Ajaccio). If anyone reading this is ever thinking of going to Corsica, let me give you their contact info - I highly recommend them!

And then - the flight home. I won't go into great detail, because I'm still mad, and we're still waiting for compensation, but like I said flippantly in the last post, there was only one major incident, where Clark and Juniper and I were almost not allowed on the flight. I wasn't exaggerating. Basically, Air France/Delta (they're the same company now), did a very good job before we even left Canada of screwing up our tickets. This didn't cause a huge headache until the Paris-Montreal flight… but as we were pre-boarding, the attendants said we didn't have a proper ticket for Juniper. We were ushered off to the side while the whole rest of the plane boarded, and after phoning here and there, finally decided that Juniper couldn't get on the plane until we coughed up an extra 250€. Not for her own seat, mind you - just to let her sit on my lap the whole way. This was a ticket we had already paid for, but which Delta had mailed to us AFTER we had left for Corsica. It was like they had taken us hostage, and we literally had to hand our credit card over while they dictated the numbers into the phone. Then they let us dash madly for the already boarded flight just before they took off. Despite the 4:30 am wake up and the 10 hour lay-over in Paris, I had been feeling fine up until that point. From there on (ie, the 7 hours to Montreal, the 4 hour lay over there and then the flight back to Halifax), I had a massive massive headache, and spent the whole time trying not to vomit. I'm still livid. We'll be getting that 250€ back for sure, but they'd better give us more than that as well. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, we made it home, and we're now mostly de-jetlagged and back to business as usual. I'm really glad we did this, and that we were able to bring Juniper. She was such a great little traveller, and I think she really enjoyed herself. She especially loved bossing my dad around - not many people can get away with that :)

I'll leave you with a little video from our lay-over in Montreal on the way home… Juniper always found ways to amuse herself and others on all our layovers. It's too bad I didn't get a video of her insisting that this nice french couple in the Orly airport (who didn't speak a word of English) read her a bunch of books and give her a puppet show!