Heading South—part two

To get from Marseille to Ajaccio, in Corsica, there are two options: take a 12–hour boat ride or a 35-minute flight. Since ferries in February only have one sailing per day which leaves at night and arrives in the morning, thus missing nice views of the Mediterranean, we decided to take Air France. Flying over Corsica and its chain of mountains was, indeed, a beautiful and impressive sight. The ancient Greeks who first settled the island called it kallisté, or “the most beautiful”—a name adopted by our hotel.

Ajaccio, the capital city of 53,000, seemed smaller than we had imagined. There is a pretty nice downtown, but there are not many big stores—except for Monoprix and two grandes surfaces, supercenters, Carrefour and Leclerc, on the outskirts of town. As usual, one of our first stops was the tourist bureau where we found a female worker who loves her region and was eager to help us learn about l'Île de Beauté. We explained that we were there for three days, but didn’t have a car. Not discouraged, she gave us three good suggestions that included a bus ride, a train ride, what to do in the city, as well as advice on where to eat.

Having walked a lot in Marseille the day before, we liked the idea of taking a city bus for 1 euro 20 that would take us along the coast past all of the beaches. Very lovely and, of course, free of the 100,000+ tourists who flock there in summer. For us, even though it was warm (no heavy jackets needed here!), the problem was showers and by the time we arrived at the end of the bus line, it was really pouring. So, instead of walking around near the lighthouse and on the beaches and rocks as we had planned, we stayed on the bus and came back downtown for a little shopping and getting the lay of the land. That night right next to us at a table at L’Estaminet, was a friendly man, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who is now the general director of an école hôtelière (“hotel management school”) in the Pyrenees. We might have to plan a trip there to check it out.

On day two, still following ideas from the lady at the tourist office, we got up early to take a very small train of only one car to the heart of Corsica, Corté. The little train passes through the mountains of le Parc Naturel et Régional, offering dizzying views of the gorges below. Corsicans feel much affection for Corté, a town of 6700 in la Haute-Corse, nestled high in the mountains. In the eighteenth century Pascal (initially Pasquale) Paoli used Corté as his capital in his successful attempt to wrest the island from the control of the Republic of Genoa. One finds his name today on the University of Corté. Although Corsican independence was short-lived (just over ten years), pride in their region and their language is evident. Walking around Corté, one hears le corse spoken quite often on the streets. We enjoyed the town: the beautiful panoramas, a nice lunch, and le Musée de la Corse.

Because it was a Friday, our train back to Ajaccio now had two cars and was filled with a lively bunch of guitar-playing and Corsican-singing students from the university. That night we enjoyed out best meal since we had arrived at Auberge Colomba, whose character of an owner serves, among other things, a variety of traditional cured meats and sheep’s milk cheeses.

Saturday morning we devoted to seeing Napoléon’s birthplace and learning more about the history of Ajaccio. It was, of course, a quirk of fate that Napoléon was born French; just the year prior to his birth France announced its acquisition of the island in a secret treaty from the Genovese. The museum, the actual property of the Buonoparte (as they were then called) family but without original furnishings, is nicely documented. We had a tasty lunch at the Trou dans le Mur, but the rainy weather drove us back to the hotel early.