We had a 5am wake up call for our drive to Livorno from Lucca to catch the ferry to Corsica which is known as “The Island of Beauty” for our week stay. The ride on the ferry was 4 1/2 hours and that was 4 1/2 hours too long, as you know we are not boat lovers. We finally arrived in Bastia for our 3 night stay.

Bastia is the 2nd largest town in Corsica. The old harbour or Vieux-Port port dates back to the 15th century and has retained quite some charm from its past ( except for the souvenir shops). It is overlooked by the twin towered St John Baptist Church, the oldest church in Corsica and built between 1636 and 1666 with a bell tower added in the 17th century.

We took Harley for a drive cross country. First coffee stop was at Saint Florent, a rather touristy summer holiday spot on the opposite coast to Bastia. We discovered that Corsica is quite mountainous and rocky with many winding bends in the road and great scenery.

We continued onto Calvi which was a busy port during the Roman era. Perched on the headland is the 13th century citadel, a fortress Christopher Columbus was reportedly born in, during the Genosea occupation of the town! The town is full of the usual cobbled streets, packed with tourist shit and many restaurants lining the promenade.

We enjoyed lunch on the promenade having our first spigola/loup/ sea bass of the trip. It was typically French, more French shit on the plate than fish! It was a little disappointing.

The next day we took Harley on another drive, this time to Cap Corso. The area is often called an “Island within an Island”. It is the northern rocky peninsular , 40 kms long and 15 kms wide. The east coast has small fishing villages and ports on the water whilst most of the west coast villages are situated on rugged cliffs with stunning views. Our first stop was at the quaint fishing village of Erbalunga. It was small and not too touristy and a great spot for coffee.

We drove along the east coast and had views of glorious sandy beaches and the clear Mediterranean waters. Next we made a brief stop at another small fishing village called Porticciolo.

We then left the coast to travel across Cap Corso to the west coast. Our lunch stop was at Pino, built on the slopes of a mountain with sea views. Our picnic lunch of Roquefort baguette was pretty dam good!

It was onwards then to our next stop of Nonza, one of the oldest villages in Corsica and a pilgrimage site for Sainte Julia, the patron saint of Corsica.The church dates back to the 14th century and the marble alter dates back to 1693.

It was time to lubricate Gregs knees while Rhonda climbed a shitload of steps to check out the torre.

The drive back to Bastia was full of narrow winding roads with dramatic cliffs and great sea views. Rhonda much preferred the east coast whilst Greg’s preference was the west.

We enjoyed our time in Bastia, wandering the narrow streets of the old town, and before departing we had breakie in Saint Nicholas which is said to be one of the largest squares in Europe.

We set off for our next stay at Ajaccio. Our coffee stop was at Corte, and typical of Greg, we ended up in the middle of the old town with narrow streets but somehow we found a car park.

The drive was through mountainous country side with some stunning scenery

We arrived in Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica, a port city on the west coast. It is the birthplace of French Emperor Napoleon in 1769. Our apartment is great, overlooking the water and very comfortable.

The temperature has been a constant 20 overnight and 30 during the day so we thought it was time for a swim in the Med. We stopped at a cute spot on the water for a coffee then continued onto Plage Terre Sacree for a well deserved swim. The water is just stunning, it is so clear and magnificent and luckily it is not high tourist season so not a lot of people.

Then we made our way to Points de la Parata to view the Îles Sanguinaires, classed as a Grand Site of France.

That night we wandered down to the old town for dinner and had a sensational great grilled spigola for dinner and a bottle of rose washed it down well.

The next day we decided to check out the other side of the bay. We took a picnic lunch and thought we may have a swim at Plage de mare E Sole but we decided the breeze was too cool so paddled instead.

Today is our last day in Corsica. Rhonda needed to check out everything about Napoleon in the town, after all he is one of her heroes, that’s besides Greg of course. He was born in 1769 in Ajaccio and the house where he was born is now a museum, although we didn’t go in. He lived in the house until he was 9 years old. The queue to enter was quite long, due to a cruise ship being in port, however lucky for us we found a micro brewery around the corner so we were able to have a beer with Napoleon there.

We checked out the Baroque Ajaccio Cathedral which was much more impressive on the inside than the outside. It is where Napoleon was baptised and a marble plaque on one of the pillars recalls the “ last wishes of the dying Emperor”. Rhonda is happy now she has seen where he was born, where he is buried, and where he lived for most of his childhood. She can lay him to rest now!!!

We went inside the Bibliotheque or library, which is a listed as an Historic monument. It was quite amazing to see the walls filled with extremely old books.

We poked our noses into Eglise St Roch which was built in the 19th century to protect the town from The Plague. We also stumbled across the Eglise St Erasme, dedicated to the patron saint of fisherman, hence all the fishing boats throughout the church. Then it was onto the Citadel, which was surrounded by people from the cruise ship in town swimming.

Then it was time for lunch and as this is our last time in France for this trip we needed to partake in a Croque Monsieur! Boy did we choose a good one! It was sensational as was the glass of rose!

Update on Greg’s health issues. The knees are “sort of” holding up. Not sure we told you but he also picked up a case of shingles.🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ So 3 weeks later and with the support of a doctor we saw in Monforte, he is gradually improving, fingers crossed the knees continue to sort of behave. He is still exercising and more importantly lubricating during the day! Rhonda is fine, just putting up with the whinging. 😂😂😂

So tomorrow is another early start for us. We catch a ferry to head to Sardinia for a 3 week stay.
That’s it for now

Ciao ciao

Greg and Rhonda.