After the perfect evening, time to move on. The delightful Camille, our hostess at the hotel, Delaney Mars in Puligny Montrachet, made us a pain perdu for breakfast. One of the rooms was called Pain Perdu and we had talked of Monica Galleti, of Masterchef fame, loving them. She didn’t know how to, just You Tube’d and off she went!
The journey to Lyon airport takes around 90 minutes, we were talking about how it is inevitable that with trips of this length, things go wrong and, that so far…. Step forward Lyon Airport and Air Corsica! We arrived two hours 15 minutes before the flight yet, ended up rushing to the gate with 5 minutes to spare having endured the shameful disorganisation of Air Corsica’s check in staff. They had two flights leaving at the same time, nearly 400 people heading off for holiday and yet they only had three desks and a senior manager agreeing that they just were not up to the task; “pas de merde, Piorot!” With only 30 minutes to go until the flight left, security then added their incompetence to the mix. Were it not for one member showing unilateral initiative, we, and quite a few others, wouldn’t have made it.
Anyway, we are here, the above photograph is my view over north west Corsica. The town is called Oletta, the region Patrimonio, home to one of the nine wine growing areas of Corsica. The local town is St Florent and is not dissimilar to many small towns on the Cote D’Azur. Yes, Corsica is French but there’s been a huge movement for independence for decades. You see graffiti, stickers and flags slagging off mainland France, the symbol is a black face in silhouette, with a white head band. It is Corsica’s Che Gevara symbol, an image of a black man from the Maur. Good luck with that one!
We are here for four days, mainly at my behest. I came here with the kids in ‘97, a great holiday at a Mark Warner centre but, beyond the hotel, the you only see the airport and bus!
We have a delightful B&B, stunning views and the patron, Natalie, who has been very helpful in advance but, quite regulatory once here. We’d decided on a night in and had bought picnic products and wine, only to be told no picnic/wine once we arrived. Not to worry, she’d recommended a local restaurant having learned AD was a veggie. Le Potager du Nebbio was a delight. An agritourismo destination, farm by day, cottages to stay and restaurant by night with all dishes farm to table. A lovely deck, great Maitre’D and fabulous food, Simple, rustic but, up a level. The chefs made three separate visits to the gardens to pick ingredients. The main waiter wanted to talk English, we wanted to talk French. When I asked the name of the symbol for independence, he didn’t know it saying “shame on me”! If you don’t know a language, what an awesome expression. Anyway, they didn’t take a credit card so we knew how much cash we had, ordered up to the max and paid him saying “nous avons mange votre pourbois”… we have eaten your tip!