Île de Beauté

After a rather busy time with plenty of work and visitors, we were quite keen to spend a week in Corsica. Our first visit to the "beautiful isle" was three years ago, and at the time we had promised ourselves that another visit was definitely needed to fully appreciate this beautiful place.

It just so happened that our good friends Julie and Aurelien were going to Corsica at the same time as us, and were in fact even taking the same ferry as us. We arrived at Bastia quite late on Sunday the 14th of July, which is of course national day in France. So after checking in at our hotel, we hastily made our way to find a nice restaurant from where to check out the fireworks (we were hoping for normal fireworks rather than the more "explosive" kind sometimes exercised by the rather active Corsican nationalists).

And no complaints at all about the fireworks, they were pretty much as impressive as anything we've seen on the Cote d'Azur. Nothing bad to say about the food either - we had a very tasty Corsican platter, covered with local specialities. The service was rather amazingly slow - but we were quite OK with that since it gave Julie and Aurelien the time to join us (they joined us in Bastia, having taken their stuff over to their flat a bit South of Bastia).

After a good night's sleep at the hotel, we decided to spend the morning exploring Bastia, before heading to our rented flat over near St-Florent. Our walk took us through the picturesque (if rather touristy) old port, and up towards the Citadel, which overlooks Bastia. It's a pretty nice area to walk around, with its shady cobble-stone streets. We stopped for a coffee and an ice cream at one of the squares, and then enjoyed the stunning views towards Bastia for a while. The citadel bit done, we headed back to find our car, and hit the road westwards.

We stopped for lunch at Patrimonio, just a few kilometers from our destination - a decent little eatery recommended in our guide book. We also had a quick walk around the village, checking out the old village church and the famous Menhir of Patrimonio. The preparations for "Les Nuits de Guitar de Patrimonio" (a music festival) were well underway...

After a couple of wrong turns, we eventually found our little apartment, in what  our landlord Manu had referred to as "a piece of paradise". And actually it's not much of an exaggeration. The setting is superb - peaceful, with a fantastic view over the nearby mountains. The beach is just a couple hundred metres away (with turquoise, clear water...). The apartment itself is small, simple but charming, with a nice garden (with some chickens and exotic birds for extra entertainment value). Our host Rene, who seems to know everybody within a 20km radius, was a real character, genuinely friendly. So, we were most happy with our choice of accommodation. We spent the rest of the day chilling out, enjoying a rather stunning sunset at our "almost private" beach... Oh, bliss!

For the next day, Rene had managed to convince us to join his private tour to the "Desert des Agriates". The Agriates is a truly paradise-like piece of coastline, located between St-Florent and Ile Rousse, which thanks to its protected status has escaped completely from the clutches of property developers. Plenty of absolutely stunning beaches to be found. The only way to access those beaches are by foot (count several hours of hiking), 4x4, or boat. We chose the boat option, along with a family who was also staying at Rene's place. The boat tour took in all of the stunning Agriates coastline, including the legendary Saleccia beach (where the film "The Longest Day" was shot - hard to imagine a beach in Corsica posing as Normandy!). We stopped for a picnic lunch at a stunning little beach, where Rene left us for a couple of hours of chilling out. We spent most of that time snorkeling...  Beauuutilful!

For the evening, we were meeting up with Julie and Aurelien for dinner at a rather charming little village called Venzolasca, south of Bastia up in the foothills (quite a drive up there, along rather windy mountain roads). After a quick walk around the picturesque, we made our way to the restaurant, a little gem of a place called U Fragnu. I love the concept - it's basically a farmhouse that offers a set menu (so no choice when it comes to dishes), all made of local produce. It's filling, tasty and friendly. Just my kind of place... ;)

Three days done, 4 days to go at Corsica. So far, more than so good! ;-)