Corsican diary

The following is my travel diary for two weeks in Corsica:

15/5/2004 Calvi. Got off the Mega ferry in the late afternoon. Found campground then walked around town. Walked back to a restaurant (uphill) in the vieille ville (U Campellu)

16/5 4h30 walk to near the Cirque du Bonifato, stopped at stone-walled hut with young Brit man missing person notice attached. Many small pink cyclamen flowers.
Drive down west coast to Galeria. Camped then dinner on terrace overlooking the bay and Tour Genoise (first of many) opposite.

17/5 Icecream before 5h walk to Girolato near the Sala (?) nature reserve. Beer overlooking the beach, watching the unloading of a grader from barge. Notables: heat, red and yellow growths and small green snake. Drive narrow winding road to Porto, including interesting encounter with bus. Camp then dinner at La Tour Genoise over the port.

18/5/2004 Porto pastry on the beach. 0h30 walk to Calanches de Piana (natural donjon). Drive to Cargese to look for caches. Found the first 10km south on the coast road – somewhere in a nicely carved granite boat commemorating the landing of the first Greeks at that point. Couldn’t find the microcache as I kept getting blackberry prickles stuck in me. Back in the town attempted the other multicache, this time with success. Several steps took us to the two churches, down to the port for a diversionary beer then up to the Tour Genoise above, via the long winding route as I had omitted to write down a photo clue as to which path to take at a junction. A local asked us if we had been to the point for the belle vue but we had to say next time because it was getting late and we were tired.
Drove to Vico, inland from Sagone where we had to have dinner. There was a campground in Vico but not much else. It was deserted apart from one Swiss girl and her dog, the man mowing the grass and the Doberman on the roof of the reception building. In Sagone we found a hotel on the beach open and had salads and ailles de raie avec capers, which were a bit soggy, perhaps they were frozen.

19/5 Drove through forest and mountains with the first couchon sauvage we saw to the Col de Verghio. Bought bread and had lunch by the dam lake at Calacuccia. Couldn’t find a campground there and we had no time for a walk so drove to Corte. Got money, map, walked around town and anthropological museum and had beer to recover! Drove back to the Col du Verghio and took demi-pension at hotel there. Short evening walk up to the col on the GR and MM routes amongst the cows. OK evening meal of soup, ravioli (bocchio and mint), small piece of cheese or pastry. Bed quite uncomfortable.

20/5 Off relatively early for what was to be a long circuit walk. 6h30 walk to Lac du Nino. Walked around the lake and down another path with quite a few other people but we overshot our unmarked path back to the col, not reading the map or using the GPS to full advantage. We asked a couple where they were headed and they turned out to be English and offered us a lift back to our car. Jean and Dave were from Leeds and were staying in a villa near Lama (north of Corte) for a week.
Drove north of Corte to a campground near Mont d’Oro at Tatone on the railway. Nice showers followed by pizza in the campground deserted restaurant. One was crème fraiche, ham, mushroom, cheese – like carbonara on a pizza.

21/5 1h30 walk to the Cascade d’Anglais. Beautiful clear water over many gray rocks. Drove to Ajaccio. Had lunch in restaurant on the port, petites fritures and moules frittes. Short walk around town past the Maison Bonaparte. Went to Carrefour supermarket for supplies and dinner.
Drove towards Filitosa and found campground at Calzola. Lovely quiet rustic camp under cork oaks, inspected be several curious cats. Dinner of roast chicken and potato salad.

22/5 Visit to the Site Prehistorique de Filitosa – statue menhirs, settlement and quarry (no dolmen). Small museum and gallery didn’t add much..
Had lunch after passing through Propriano and buying bread and tarts. On the beach at Campomoro there was a wedding going on and a fish farm in the bay. Some spear fishermen were unloading when we arrived. Pat had a short swim but it was pretty cold so he wasn’t in long.
Drove through Sartene to Bonifacio. 2h walk around clifftop Haut Ville. Camp in poor crowded site. First few drops of rain. Walked back to Haut Ville past the port to dinner in deserted restaurant – bad value and no ambience except we were outside. Kept awake at night by fighting and police turning up nearby and Gipsy Kings playing at full volume afterwards.

23/5 Drove around the coast past a tortoise on the road (Santa Guila beach had been recommended but it was crowded and had a boring resort feel. Some bits done up, right on the beach but car park a rocky mud puddle in waiting.) Drove through Porto Vecchio (lots of shops and no parking) back into the mountains. We had lunch in the mist near Col d’Ospedale, missing the beautiful lake which we could have sat next to. Found camp near Zonza. Crowded but we found a spot by ourselves right at the top. Threatening rain but I did washing and still only a few drops. Dinner in nice restaurant in town (Auberge de Sanglier). Croustillant (Pat) charcuterie (Ro) and Civet (daube) de sanglier + excellent tarte aux pommes and chestnut gateau.

24/5 6h walk return from the Col de Bavella to the Refuge de Paliri and the U Colomleddu (Trou de Bombe), natural rock arch. Notable: thousands of pine processional caterpillars, mostly squashed, pretty blue daisy like flowers, two black beetles rolling dung ball, views of rock spires and the sea.
Returned to same campground and dinner in another restaurant in Zonza. Fieulleté (Pat), salade gibieres de canard (Ro), Daube de sanglier avec pruneaux (Pat), Legumes de Mediterranee (Ro), fidone (Gateau Corse), chataigne mousse with green leaf preserve (Ro)

25/5 5h30 walk around the Aiguilles de Bavella from the col again. Very rocky, chains in parts of the GR alpine route. Interesting changes in scenery and vegetation. Fighter jets overhead again. Tiring walk uphill at the end.
Drove to next town Quenza and found an Auberge. Managed by a chef so set menu very good. Cannelloni de brocchui (mint), stuffed quail + braised vegetables, cheese or dessert assortment. Did not sleep (heat, period, sore hip, coffee) but the shower was good and managed to see some tennis on TV. Older English couples aplenty here!

26/5 Drove through the middle of the island over uncomfortably winding roads: more pigs, some lovely woodlands but also burnt, deforested hillsides. Finally had lunch by the road then found natural river campsite north of Corte. Train line went around it and the river through.
Drove to a pizza place for dinner. TV on with champions league final but we didn’t stay.

27/5 After quick supermarket shop drove back to the southwest of Corte to the Gorge de la Restonica. At the end of the road got a remarkably good spot right next to the track which took us up to two lakes, Melo and Castanella (still almost all ice), via ladders and through snow (skied on boots down although Pat had chosen to wear sneakers because the walk was supposed to be short!). Sustained our only injuries, a big bruise on calf and a gashed hand. Lots of German families with children.
Back to campground for showers then returned to Corte. Checked email at a cyber pub then had beer and meal in the old town. Food at recommended U Museu cheap and unremarkable.

28/5 Left campground at 10am after paying blind man owner. Drove through La Castagniccia area, including Morosaglia (where patriot leader of briefly independent Corsica Palio was born), chestnut woods with many domestic animals (pigs, goats, cows, horses and birds. Found cache at Col (Bocca di San Antonio). Lunch of toasted panini and beer at La Porta near a baroque church with contrasting bell tower. Ended up on the coast again. Towards Bastia the single lane boring road held more and more traffic so we turned inland again, over some hills to the north coast.
Camp by a river at San Fiorenzu. Walk around town and bastion. Dinner in busy place with new waiter anxious to practise his English resulting in some mistunderstandings. Spoke to Norwegian with French Canadien wife after laughing at the waiter’s efforts. Good steak (Ro) and moules frites (Pat), followed by icecream profiteroles.

29/5 Drove around Cap Corse with stops at Nonza (odd little schist tower) and Centuri (lunch on the hot rocky beach then walked in the small village fishing port). Through Bastia without stopping and San Fiorenzu without joy at the ATM. Along the coast past Ile Rousse to Calvi we loked for a nice campground but failing to find one we returned to the same campground in Calvi. Shopped at the supermarket for more Muscat and terrine that we had liked (but none of the Emperor with figues which was so good, sweet and tasty).
Dinner on the marina, which was full of yachts from Antibes for a 40th anniversary club race and Aussie Rules, a superyacht. We guessed who it could belong to among famous Australians: Greg Norman, perhaps. I later confirmed this online – a $70 million dollar largest aluminium hulled go anywhere pleasure cruiser with fantastic number of toys for fishing, diving and boating. Food was a bit disappointing for a 20€ menu, overcooked and strongsmelling seafood with overly salty sauces.

30/5 Rest day in campground. Looked at the beach on the way to get bread. Plenty of people on it but only one in the water. Yachts had all gone to be replaced by an influx of Germans including one family who had to put their mansion tent up less than a metre from ours while we were in it – grr!
Dinner in behind port, steak (Pat) stodgy seafood spaghetti (Ro). Bought red coral earrings but no T-shirt.

31/5 Packed up and drove to Calenzana (start/end of GR20). 1h30 walk up to first col and back with quite a few daywalkers and fresh GR walkers. Drove back through a couple of other La Balagne perched towns. Not much activity for a fete day so we headed back to Calvi for lunch at an Italian style place: lasagne au brocciu (local fresh cheese and mint) (Ro) and Pizza Reine (Pat).
Had to while away the time until the ferry so drove up to the Notre Dame and stayed there in a rather wild wind for a few hours. Back in town found a 24h petrol pump that took a while to negotiate.
Had a drink on the marina, pastis and tea, then panini in the car before queuing for the ferry.

We're back in the week after Easter. The long weekend (only Monday) we spent in the Vaucluse region of Provence.
Saturday we drove to Vaison-la-Romaine, found a campground in nearby St Marcellin then drove into the town and walked around. First up the hill to the ruined chateau cum fort, through the old medieval town then across the Roman pont to the opposite side of the river Ouveze. The town had a massive flood in 1992 so there has been rebuilding but the extensive Roman ruins are still there. We didn't pay to go in but walked around and looked through the fence at the impressive amphitheatre.

We missed out on a meal in a rather rustic looking fixed-menu restaurant in the medieval part so opted to try Morroccan for a change. Entrees of cumin-spiced tomato, eggplant and zucchini and a pancake (brique) with chicken and sweet sauce were followed by couscous (of course) with beef and prunes for Pat and meatballs for me, again in a tomato sauce.

The first night in the tent was very cold, even after taking a short walk along the riverbed.

The following day dawned clear (although we woke up after 9.30!) so we drove up Mont Ventoux after a stop in Malucene for bread and a drink. Ventoux is the highest mountain in Provence (2010m) with its own ecosystem. True to its name it was blowing a cold wind up there and snow dusted the trees higher up, above the road closure. A short walk away from the road gave us a slightly better view of the ski slopes (now bare) and the various towers on the summit. The view off the mountain was a bit hazy. After a picnic lunch on the way down we drove through the fields back around to Vaison-la-Romaine via another old village, Seguret. There we admired the little paved alleys and the strangely woven plane trees over the carpark.
We found another campground in a different direction from Vaison and finally found one of the Michelin-guide-recommended places to eat. Dinner was a three course menu in a busy upstairs room next to a tiled shaft down to the floor below and a fake staircase up the wall to an old door in the mezzanine. I started witha goats' cheese tart and Pat had a rabbit(?) terrine ,which was a bit bland and complete with bones. My main was sauteed porc in a mustard cream sauce and Pat's was baby goat (chevreau); chocolate gateau and fraise et cafe glace for dessert.
After a warmer nights rest and a shower we left to drive home via a few more stops. We found an interesting Chateau in Suze-la-Rousse. The wind was now blowing freezing cold. Before lunch we found the trogolodyte village of Barry near Bollene and walked around its many buildings and looked at the view of the Rhone. Back-tracking a little we found a picnic table in some woodland and had a rather chilly meal. Last stop was Orange where we found the amazing Roman relics of a triumphal arch and huge theatre. The theatre had a very interesting audio tour although the wind whistling through didn't make one want to hang around. The remaining marbles collected from it were in the museum opposite. There was a very nice oil painting of the port of Nice in there too. Pat tried unsuccessfully to drive me past the Chateauneuf des Papes winery (with a tiled roof he claimed to remember) but only succeeded in finding the chateau in the town of the same name.
We headed back on the motorway (after we found it and after we negotiated the hazard of filling up the car and getting back into a traffic jam or two).

All in all an enjoyable trip.

Anna left last night on a train to Italy after a week staying with us. We managed a couple more museums that I hadn't been to before: Musée d'Archeologique and the Musée d'Art moderne et d'Art contemporaine where we saw a rather disturbing display of works by a Jean Fabre, containing lots of animal (mainly insects) and human body parts. C'etait trés bizarre. His great-grandfather was a well-known entomologist, Jean Fabre.

Other things we managed to do:
walked around Antibes, went to "bandes dessins", English books and Asian foods shops
walked around old Grasse and saw the costume and jewellery museum
drove to Mons and did a walk downhill towards the aqueduct romaine
found first geocache near the Col de Vence (St Barnabé) (from Geocaching)
dinner in Mougins (vieille ville) with Martin Childs and Norman and Sharon
I played tennis in the heat while Anna went and explored Nice by train

Back to the blog

I'm now ensconced in the life of the expat wife in Villeneuve Loubet on the Cote d'Azur. Tennis, hiking, French lessons, shopping, coffee, internet.

The topics from my previous posting are still relevant, here in France. I can still watch the eucalypts waving in the wind outside our balcony windows, looking towards the Mediterranean Sea. Also, I have been sick 3 times since I arrived in September, 2003. I arrived with an ear infection (Dr B thinks I may have hearing loss in the left side) and have subsequently had two colds, one whilw our Aussie friends were living here with their two boys, and one after skiing in Morzine.

Today I have had to do a load of washing in our landlady's washing machine. She lives next door. I managed to wake her son, Benoit (20). Even though I waited until after 12 he wandered out in his underpants rubbing hie eyes! He did help me and brought the clean wet load back up. While I was waiting I had lunch and vacuumed this hard-to-clean off-white tiled floor.

Pat left for a GSS team building exercise in the Cotswalds on Monday afternoon. He will be back late tonight and hopefully tomorrow we can go away for a long weekend to see more of northern Provence or maybe even further away.

So what has happened in the 20 months since I wrote that first entry. Simpler to list some point form:
* got engaged in August, bought opal ring
* fell over a small cliff into Lane Cover River and bruised hip and badly grazed arm. Old mobile ruined!
* job found at Sydney Uni with Centre for the Mind, supervised by Allan Snyder and Terry Bossomaier. Friendly colleagues including Elaine M, Natasja W, Angela Y, Maria and Martin B. My office turns out to be opposite Max's labs so again a neighbour to William L and Duncan B.
* got married at Banjo Paterson's Cottage, Gladesville on 29th March, 2003 (almost our anniversary now)
* month long honeymoon in Bhutan, with a group of friendly Aussies and Americans
* gave notice in June that I was going to France
* we packed up townhouse in North Ryde into a storage space in Hornsby
* Pat left for the south of France
* after a week's skiing in Perisher, handed over my job to a rather volatile man (who lasted 2 weeks before Allan sacked him)
* left Australia for Nice
* hotel in Sophia for a two weeks before finding this townhouse through Norman Dong (he and Sharon had lived here before)
* some outings with Claire Moore to get to know the area. Started driving.
* we got our visas through visits to the Mairie, madical examination and chest x-rays with a French helper, Catherine Bo
* couple of games of squash with David M before they leave for Australia in December
* 10 day trip to UK while Pat is back for a sea-trial in Australia
* watching the world cup rugby
* started hiking and tennis with the IWCR women during Christmas activities
* my cousin Adam survives a terrible car accident as a pedestrian in Gosford and spends many weeks in hospital
* Chug and Ang arrive for a few days from Indiana and have Christmas meals - yum
* Jenny and Bob arrive from Canberra but miss the good weather. They go on through Italy to ski in San Cassiano while we drive up to Morzine to ski with Mum and Dad for a week
* they come back early after Bob's father dies in New Zealand. They make it back for the funeral.
* Mum and Dad come back from skiing in Austria and Italy to see the south of France. Mum's ski acident rebounds in effects of delayed concussion and they are forced to stay almost two weeks longer than they planned. We did quite a bit of sightseeing as a result (instead of more skiing).