Corsica is one of the most beautiful islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Like a jewel, it shines in the azure blue waters that surround it, a place of history with a rich culture, wonderful cuisine, outstandingly beautiful natural landscape and much much more.
A Little Corsican History
The first thing on your agenda if you’re in the town of Bastia is to take a walk through the old town, with its elegant colonnaded square and statue of Pascal Paoli, the father figure of all true-blooded Corsicans.
A little history: after years of dispute between various Mediterranean powers, the Genoese finally took control of Corsica in 1284. Pascal Paoli launched an uprising, which did not end until 1769, a year after the Genoese had sold the island to France who put the ruthless Comte Marbeuf and General Morando in charge.
Eventually Paoli secured help from the English, who ruled Corsica from 1794 to 1796 when the newly born French Republic regained power. As for Paoli, he died in exile in England and was buried in Westminster Abbey, his remains being returned to his homeland many years later. Meanwhile, that upstart Napoleon Bonaparte had ruled the roost – a Corsican who had forsaken his roots adapted his surname and become the most French of all Frenchmen (There’s an excellent Bonaparte Museum in Ajaccio).
After many decades of unrest and occasional violence, in 1990 France’s national assembly finally approved a statute recognising the Corsican people’s right to maintain an identity of their own, with special cultural, economic and social rights but remaining within the French Republic.
What to see and do in Corsica
Resist the lure of the beach and explore! To the south of Ajaccio is the popular resort of Calvi and, a lot further down the coast, the stunningly beautiful jagged red rocks of Les Calanches and the breathtaking Bay of Porto, guarded by an imposing mediaeval watchtower – surely one of the most romantic places in the world to watch the sun go down.
Inland is the dramatic Parc Naturel Régionel de Corse, with its tumbling streams and deep gorges and the steep cobbled backstreets of ancient Corte, the headquarters town of the famed – or should that be infamous? – French Foreign Legion.
It doesn’t look much on the map, but set at least five or six hours aside for the dramatic drive round Cap Corse, that spectacular promontory that sticks out of the top of the island, pointing finger-like to the far-off mainland France – and hope, as you negotiate the endless twists and turns, ups and downs and often precariously narrow stretches of one of the planet’s most fabled coast roads, that nobody in the vehicle is a car sickness sufferer. After all that nail-biting drama, you could stop for a strong coffee at one of the popular student thronged pavement cafés in downtown Bastia, the island’s self-important second city – if you could ever find a place to park in what must be one of Europe’s most traffic-logged towns.
The capital city of Ajaccio has stunning views across to neighbouring Sardinia, super-photogenic Bonifacio, with its houses built precipitously into the side of the near sheer cliffs. But 30-degree temperatures, clear blue skies and balmy evenings had made it a memorable September sojourn on a remarkable island where even fractured memories could not spoil things. Like Sicily, Corsica was once bandit-ridden and had its own version of the Mafia but it is now a very safe and peaceful place and the locals are very friendly. When I stupidly reversed down a hidden ditch, two passing motorcyclists and a 4X4 driver stopped immediately to offer their help and had me back on the road in a few minutes. When I proffered my thanks the truck driver responded warmly: ”You are never on your own in Corsica.”
