Bonjour Sweet Friends!

Yesterday was a gorgeous day in Corsica!! Beautiful blue, cloudless sky and crystal clear waters all around me. While it was chilly in the morning it soon began to warm up and a day at the beach looked promising. Corsica reminds me so much of Hawaii with its mountains, tropical weather and warm people.

The little hotel where I’m staying, La Florentine, is a seasonal hotel like most hotels here, and high season doesn’t really start until late June/early July and continues through end of August. The hotel shuts down in early October and reopens the following April to prepare for summer. So, it’s still a sleepy, quiet little place right now with not too many guests and only 4-5 staff members. I’m an early riser, so when I went downstairs at 6:30 AM all the lights were off, no one was at the receptionist desk, no other guests were up; I was alone. I went to the breakfast room and the owner and proprietor, Jean Claude Rossi was having his breakfast. He invited me to join him. I made my coffee and we sat outside and tried to communicate. My French is non-existent save a very pleasantries and his English is just passable. But we managed to talk about the island and what it has to offer. He gave me directions to several good beaches and told me he owns vineyards and makes his own wine. He invited me to go with him to Bastia to the market later in the day and perhaps see his vineyard, but the sun and beach lured me away.

I walked into town to buy some sunscreen and salad mix for the day. I walked up to the Citadel and down to the ocean. By then many cars were on the road heading to church and tourists were beginning to hit the cafes for breakfast. I decided to head back to the hotel and park myself by the pool. The beach here behind the hotel is a pebble beach, so no sand but it offers a gorgeous view and clear water. There are lounge chairs set up for our benefit, but for today, the pool looked great to me. I grabbed my book, phone and ear buds and went to my happy place. AHHHHHHHH!

Later in the afternoon, I decided to take Jean Claude’s advice and drive to Calvi. I invited Solene, the young lady at the reception desk, to join me for the drive and for dinner in Calvi. Solene, pronounced So-lynn, is from northern France, 23 years old and is working here for the season. She’s been very sweet to me since I arrived, even before I arrived via phone, so it was without hesitation that I invited her to come along. She got off at 3 PM, so we set off shortly thereafter.

The road from St. Florent to Ile Rousse is about 15 kilometers of zig zaging switchbacks through the mountains. The views are wonderful but require stopping on the side for me to look as the road required all my attention. Since I could only go about 35 kilometers/hr on the road, it took a while to get to Ile Rousse. We passed a sign to Site Ambroggio. This was one of the good beaches Jean Claude had told me about so we took a quick detour. The plage or beach was about a 10 minute walk down a dirt path, across a bridge, then across the canal with no bridge to access the beach. While it was a beautiful white sandy beach, neither me nor Solene were prepared to hike up our skirts and wade through the canal to get to the beach. This bit of info did not get translated 🙂

And so we drove on. We stopped in Ile Rousse for a coffee and then made our way to Calvi via the highway – no more switchbacks! Although, the highway is not without its perils. The drivers here are very aggressive and will ride your bumper until they can pass you, often offering much celebrated gestures as they pass!

Once we reached Calvi, a big city compared to St. Florent and Ile Rousse, we parked on a side street and found a restaurant. Corsican food is very rustic with many local cured meats (jambon) and cheeses, lots of pasta and of course wines. The local wine is a rose and I understand from Jean Claude, it is quite good and well known in France. As I said, there are no vegetarian or vegan restaurants to be found, so I ordered a salad with grilled yellow and red peppers.  It was quite good and filling. During dinner, we heard singing; what sounded like a chorale. I walked to the street and there was a procession of priests and parish members walking the street singing a beautiful hymn of some sort and carrying a cross with the crucified Christ figure. As they passed, the church bells began pealing loudly. It was wonderful! I think they were marking Ascension Day, but I’m not sure.

Solene and I walked to the very large and mostly intact Citadel. The wall remains and inside there are many restaurants and shops for the tourists.  The views were outstanding, but as the temperature began to drop with the sun, we decided to head back before complete darkness. I was hesitant to take on those switchbacks too late in the night.

We made it back with no problems, except for finding a radio station! Every time we turned a corner on the road, the station switched to some other channel randomly. We had our on phantom DJ in the car!  It was a perfect day – lounging by the pool for hours doing nothing, driving with my new friend to another part of the island, enjoying a lovely al fresco dinner while listening to singing and church bells. Again, Corsica reminds me so much of Hawaii; it’s a little slice of home, of heaven to me!

Today, I’m taking a sail boat to a beach that can only be reached by boat or foot!! Have a heavenly day my friends! Au Revoir!!