Balzac wrote Corsica is “ a French island basking in the Italian sun”. It’s given us Christopher Columbus, born in Calvi, now the sort of tourist town which would make you want to travel and explore elsewhere and, a little more recently, Napoleon. It has its own language, a hybrid of French and Italian, Franglian? I suppose that, a unique culture and accent makes the independence argument more emphatic.
Natalie, our host, is a lot more amenable this morning, proffering both cheeks for a bissou! Her breakfast features an awesome Clementine marmalade made especially for the Brits. We had booked to stay with her having read a great Conde Nast Traveller piece on Mediterranean gems to frequent, which she hadn’t seen. We’d previously thought you might pay for inclusion.
So, off we go, for a meander down the coast towards Calvi. The area is called La Balagne, it’s a lunar landscape as you cross the island to cling to the coast line. The sea is azure, the coastline craggy, however, the villages and towns have that tired breeze block and plaster look, redeemed by terracotta tiles. As we discovered at Lyon airport, the tourist season has started in earnest so, we are happy to avoid the towns and settle for some rocks for our oft mentioned picnic, next to the sea in a small village called Algajola. We’ve a bottle of wine, chilling in the sea, cheese that’s been ponging in the car, salad, baguette, cherries and a Corsican biscuit known as a Canistelli, a little like a small biscotti. Above our rocky blanket was a bench seat dedicated to a lady who had been killed in 2019, placed there by an organisation committed to highlighting the scourge that is femicide. This point is not to lower the tone of this blog, however, while it’s Fathers Day, we should not only celebrate the fathers of the world, we should also recognise the level of crime against women perpetuated by men that they have chosen to trust.
It’s very hot, 38C when we got back to the car an hour later but, such a delight to do our thing in the sun without a care in the world. The temperature is not dissimilar to the mainland, except, we now have humidity which adds a little discomfort to the mix. I should also note that as it’s Father’s Day I received a card from Harry, what a dutiful son that dog is!
We are staying in a great, modern hotel tonight, the Casa Paradisu, in a place called Montecello. It has new fangled this, that and the other, namely switches, lights, taps, shower heads and the coffee machine needs qualifications!However, despite these gizmos, I could rely on an excellent Old Fashioned made by the bar lady who proudly told us she had won the Jack Daniels Cocktail of the Year for Paris, in 2019, with her Old Fashioned! Sitting with the sunset and cocktails, talking of our experiences…..