We had a great time... of Corse (Corsica)

Member Name: grahamt

Product:	Corsica
Date:	28/07/03 (943 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great weather, Good food, Superb wine

Disadvantages: Europcar

Both the kids (can you still call them kids at 21 and 23?) have finally finished at University. Actually, my son finished last year and has been living and working in Manchester since then. My daughter has just completed her Photographic Art degree course at Newport, graduating with a 2:1, the same credit that my son got for Computer Science at UMIST. She was chuffed about that. She desperately wanted to do at least as well as him.

We needed a break. Would they want to come with us? Well, yes, they would, especially if Dad was paying! My son has never really been a party animal. His job is very stressful and so all he wanted to do was chill out in the sun. My daughter just wanted a break.

So, we decided on Corsica, well my wife and I did. They kids didn't really care. Corsica was a first for us, as was the tour company, Simply Travel. The location proved to be a good choice. I'm still undecided about the tour company.

The Island
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Corsica (La Corse in French, if you didn't get the pun in the title) is one of the larger islands of the Mediterranean. It is the northern of the the two islands south of France and between Italy and Spain. It's southern companion is Sardinia. Corsica is a part of the French Republic; it's the 22nd Department. Sardinia is a part of the Italian Republic. Both islands are, however, of more Italian origins than French. This explains some of the political problems that Corsica experiences even to this day.

The original inhabitants are believed to have come from northern Italy many thousands of years ago. Corsica has the remains of some of the oldest settlements in Europe. For most of the last millennium the island was ruled by the City State of Genoa. The Corsicans developed their own unique language (Corsi) which is a mixture of Italian and Latin. It is still spoken despite the current rulers, France, trying to suppress the language, even within


living memory. Today, signposts are in both languages though local "freedom-fighters" tend to spray-paint out the French versions of place names.

Actually, on the subject of place signs, although directions and locations are abundant, indications of distances are virtually non-existent. Mostly you'll know that you've arrived when you get there.

Actually, the Corsicans were as ferocious in their opposition to Genoese rule as they have been to the French, ever since France assumed control around the time of Bonaparte. Hostilities only ended as recently as 1999! Today an uneasy peace exists and it is far from certain that it will last, especially if the Administration continues to demonstrate the sort of uncompromising intransigence that is just so typical of the French.

However, the independence movement has never had any impact on tourists visiting the island. The Corsicans fully realise that this would be death to the economy. They're not so daft as to do anything to destroy that. We found them eternally friendly and polite. It's certainly not even remotely like the the problems found in the Basque region of Spain where ETA regard anything and anyone, including foreign tourists, as valid targets.

French is, of course, spoken everywhere. English is also spoken in most of the tourist hotspots but don't expect to get by everywhere if you are not prepared to at least make the effort to learn at least a few of the more useful words in French. Fortunately both my wife and I speak reasonably good French and the kids can get by.

We were based towards the southern tip of the island, close to the coastal town of Porto Vecchio. We only got to see the south-eastern quarter of the island so I cannot comment on any of the other attractions of Corsica outside of this region.

Figari Airport
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We arrived at Figari airport, from Gatwick. We were flying with
Aestreus, a new airline to me. The flight was fine, only marred by the fact that we were over two hours late taking off due to a fault on the inbound aircraft that had delayed its take-off from Figari.

Even the famous had to put up with the inconvenience. No, not us. Whilst we were passing the time with as good grace as tolerable I happened to look up and notice what I thought was a famous face. A beautiful women carrying a baby, clearly waiting for the same flight as us. I leaned across to my daughter and said "Isn't that..." and before I could finish she said, "Yes, it is".

It was that wonderful actress Natascha McElhone, who you will probably remember from what is certainly one of my all-time favourite films, "Ronin", where she starred alongside the outstanding Robert De Niro and, probably my all-time favourite French actor, the incomparable Jean Reno. She was making the best of it with the rest of us without any "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here" tantrums. I was even more impressed than before.

Figari is a tiny airport, about 25 kilometres south of Porto Vecchio. It handles only very few flights each day, mostly charter and regional flights from France on Air Littoral. The facilities there are sparse though clean. Just pray you don't get delayed too long. We were also delayed over an hour on the return journey. At least it is air-conditioned. Shopping is virtually non-existant. The Bar owners turf you out of their seats if you are not drinking their drinks, even though virtually all the table were unoccupied.

Car Hire
~~~~~~~~~~
We had a fly-drive deal. The car rental firm was Europcar. Most of the holidays come with a car provided. You will need it since public transport does not seem to be extensive. Corsica's only railway system was dismantled many years ago. Buses do not seem to be abundant.

Had I known in advance of the proble
ms we were to experience I would have declined the offer and made my own arrangements, probably through Holiday Autos, who are based here in Camberley where we live.

We arrived at Figari and, whilst waiting for our luggage I was advised by the Rep to go and get the hire car. The Europcar hut (maybe I'll be generous and call it a Portacabin) was across the short-stay car park, along with those of other car hire companies such as Avis.

All the others were empty. The Europcar one was so full that it was difficult even to get in through the door. When I arrived there were about 40 people waiting to get their cars. More people were arriving all the time. There were three people serving! Each car took about 10 minutes to process. The Reps took your voucher and put it in a queue. You waited for your name to be called.

Nearly two hours later they reached me. During that time a flight arrived from Paris. At that point the third assistant stopped serving the UK customers and sat there waiting in case any French customers turned up to collect their cars. None did but the assistant still didn't recommence serving us!

The really annoying part about all this is that before we even departed from the UK we had been advised in our travel pack that you could pre-register on the Europcar website and so cut down all of the paperwork needed when you arrived. This process was really complex and had taken hours. All this effort was totally wasted as the local Figari branch had no access to this centralised computer system and so it all had to be done all over again when we got there.

I'm sorry but such incompetence is inexcusable. This is the last time I shall ever use Europcar.

Anyway, we finally got our car. The Europcar assistant inspected it and agreed that there were already a number of scratches and dents. Make sure that they acknowledge these as you may otherwise get accused of having caused them yourse
lf during your use of the vehicle.

The car was a an upgrade from the basic one that came wit the holiday. As there were four of us this was essential. We had a new Renault Laguna, a left-hand drive, six speed, 1.9 diesel hatchback. The luggage only just fitted in.

I have driven left-hand drive cars before so it wasn't long before I stopped trying to change gear with the door handle!

The Laguna is not a bad car and, of course, it came with air-conditioning. Bliss! I rarely got to use sixth gear at any time during the holiday. Much of the time I had forgotten it even had one. This is only the second car I've ever driven with six gears. The other one was a Porche Carrera 2.

Hameau de Pietra Nera
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The drive from Figari to our resort was fairly easy due to good directions given in our travel pack. The resort was a little inland from the coast in an area called La Trinite, just North of the by-pass around Porto Vecchio. The by-pass is very good and avoids you having to drive through Porto Vecchio which, with the best will in the World is not designed for heavy (any!) traffic.

The instruction said that the road (track!) up to the resort was easy to miss. They weren't wrong. The side road was right on a blind bend and immediately went up at around a 1 in 8 gradient. It wound around lower properties and was rarely wide enough for two vehicles. Where you met, often it needed one or other to back up to the nearest passing place.

Eventually, having climbed for around a kilometre we reached the resort. Owned be a French family it consisted of five villas, two of which were semi-detached, around a communal swimming pool. The lady who showed us around spoke more than adequate English (most of her guests were English) and so we got by in English and French quite sufficiently to understand all of the Rules and Regs.

Our villa had a open lounge/kitchenette, two b
edrooms (a bed-settee in the lounge could also be used), toilet, shower room and an en-suite to our bedroom. There was no air-conditioning nor even ceiling fans to provide relief from the heat. For that you had to rely on leaving all the windows open and hope for a cross-breeze. Of course, leaving the windows open also provided opportunities of the local mosquitoes to have their fill of you, which they did regularly. Bug-screens across the windows would have been a big improvement.

There was a covered patio outside the entrance, with a barbecue with a chimney built into the corner. There was a table and chairs, sun-loungers and a sunshade which, we were told, we could take down to the beach if we wanted.

The kitchenette was well provided. A large fridge-freezer was big enough to hold the essentials (wine, cheese, water...) and there was also a microwave, a small oven, a hob and a dishwasher. More than enough crockery and glasses were provided, including decent sized coffee mugs and tumblers.

Having arrived late because of all of the delays, we unpacked and settled in to rest so as to enjoy the most of the following days.

Shopping
~~~~~~~~~~~
There are many supermarkets in and around Porto Vecchio. They are all much of a muchness. The nearest one to us was Geant, right on the northern-most roundabout at the end of the by-pass. This is, like the majority of French supermarkets, huge. You will find just about everything you could possibly want and many things you don't realise you want until you come across them.

What I love about French supermarkets, apart from the abundance of good cheap wine, are the cheese and meat counters. The sheer number of different types of cheeses is mind-boggling. They have absolutely no problem with you trying a little of any (or all!) of them before you buy. We have our favourites such as Morbier but we also like to try new ones, especially the local cheeses.
r>We found a couple of outstanding cheeses. One is the local Tome, a mildish cheese with bags of taste. The other wasn't a local but came from the Basque region, called Le Petit Basque. Delicious. We ate tons of this and brought a whole one home with us.

The local Corsican wine is outstanding. They specialise in Rose and we never had a bad one. Indeed,we didn't find an indifferent let alone a bad Corsican wine of any type, White, Rose or Red.

In fact, one Red that we found was so good we brought back as many bottles as we could carry. Called Terra Nostra (Our Land ? a good patriotic name if ever there was), this 12.5% abv. wine is made from the local Niellucciu grape. This worked out at about £2 a bottle. (My) Malcolm Gluck rating ? 18.5! I shall be very upset when we have finished the last bottle. I may be forced to go back to Corsica to get some more!

And then of course, there's the French bread. Now, I know they have started making baguettes in places like Sainsbury's and Tescos but somehow it still isn't quite the same. It must be to do with the type of flour that they use. The soft European wheat gives a uniqueness to the bread that you simply can't get with the hard American wheat that is universally used to make British bread.

I can never get over how cheap and good food is in France. No wonder people who live in Kent do their shopping in Calais! If you can get a cheap evening crossing, usually about £20, you only need buy 20 bottles of wine and you've covered the cost of the trip. Everything else is "profit".

Porto Vecchio
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Most of the major towns in this region are still small by our standards; Porto Vecchio is no exception. Porto Vecchio is similar to most in that it is built in a fortified position overlooking a harbour. The town still has the remains of many of its city walls and the architecture is largely stone-built buildings
of considerable age.

The streets are narrow and a one-way system directs traffic around the town. Parking is mostly on street although there are a few car parks, especially down at the harbour. The walk up to the town takes about 10 minutes.

I have to say that in general Porto Vecchio failed to impress me. The main feature, other than the harbour, is the central square beside the main church. Here table seating is available, much beneath the shade of trees, and associated with the cafes and restaurants around the outside of the square, some actually on the other side of the road bordering the square. Here you can enjoy a drink or a meal.

We ate only once in Porto Vecchio. I can't remember the name of the restaurant but it was one of those which looks out through the town walls, overlooking the harbour. There are three or four side by side. The poshest one has an entrance just inside the gatehouse. The one we tried was the furthest left-most as you look at the walls from the outside.

The food was reasonable though not exeptional. We sat on a partially covered patio. The problem was the wind. It sprang up whilst we were eating and caused occasional mayhem, blowing items about the area. We survived but went away wondering whether we might better have chosen one of the other more protected restaurants.

Bonifacio
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bonifacio is a must to visit. If you go nowhere else you must go there. Situated right at the southern tip of the island, this fortified city is everything that Porto Vecchio isn't.

It's an easy about 45 minutes drive south of Porto Vecchio. The roads are good between the two towns. We parked just below the town, entering the car park through an archway in the lower walls. From here entrance to the town can be achieved by climbing up the steps that used to be a part of the patrol of the troops who defended the walls. You emerge be the side of the Tourist
Informatio
n office.

The main town is situated on a rocky spit of land that runs parallel to the mainland and encloses the harbour between the two. The harbour contains some of the most expensive floating real estate I have ever seen outside of Monte Carlo. This is definitely the place where the leisured classes come to flaunt their riches. Jealous? Me?

The city is a sheer delight. We spent the whole day there, walking the narrow and steep alleyways, looking at the shops (very expensive!), browsing the outdoor market, having the odd refreshment and looking at the architecture. Later in the day we climbed down to the harbour and checked out the many restaurants and bars.

The habour area has loads of choice and, had we not already eaten we would certainly have been happy to eat at any one of a dozen such locations.

As it happened, we chose to have lunch at Les Terrasses d'Aragon restaurant at the top of the town, overlooking the bay. A spectacular view and a superb meal. I can definitely recommend this eatery. We had the set menu together with a bottle of wine. Total for two (the kids aren't really interested in sightseeing) was ?68.40 or around £50. Worth it for the view alone!

A word about set menus in Corsica. Generally you get the same dishes as on the general menu but just less in quantity. Les Terrasses was an exception. Portions were generous. Mostly, elsewhere this wasn't so. If you're feeling hungry, set menus are likely not to be a good choice.

So, generally a delightful day and well worth the effort.

Beaches
~~~~~~~~~~
As I mentioned, our accommodation came complete with a communal pool and sun loungers so we had no actual need to seek out the sea. However, what is the point of visiting the seaside if you don't have a dip in the sea?

Palombaggia is Porto Vecchio's southern and most popular beach. You take a side road just beyond the s
outhern-most roundabout of the by-pass and then drive around 10kms over narrow winding roads. Eventually you reach a parkland area where you can park your car in the shade of trees, for free. From there the beach is around 150 metres away.

The beach area is divided up into separate beaches by rocky breakwaters. These are natural and not really required as the sea wasn't that rough whilst we were there. There are several beach cafes if you haven't brought food and drink with you.

You can simply lie on the beach on your beach towels if you choose. You can also hire sun loungers and parasols for ?10. The first time we went there we didn't bother. The second time was the day we left. Palombaggia is about half-way to the airport so we decided to go and take one last look at the sea here after vacating our villa. This time we felt that the sun lounger option was wise, simply to avoid getting covered in sand and salt before the return journey.

The second beach that we visited was about 35kms north of where we were staying and just south of Solenzara. Located at Favone, this beach also houses a camp site. It may seem a long way to go but we had a reason for going to Solenzara, which I'll cover later. The beach is, like most we saw, clean with crystal clear waters. The only problem was one we encountered in most locations, the breeze that whipped up the sand towards the end of the day.

The final beach we visited is one I wish we had found earlier since it was by far the best of them all. Cala Rossa was in fact the nearest to where we were staying but well off the beaten track. Porto Vecchio is situated right at the farthest end of a huge bay, so making it a perfectly sheltered harbour. Cala Rossa is situated on the north shore, closer to the mouth of the bay.

Here you can do water sports such as yachting or wind-surfing using hired equipment or simply lie in the sun and soak up the rays. We chose th
e latter. Also situated here is an excellent restaurant where we had lunch. Le Rancho is located right on the beach. You eat in a terrace raised about 2 metres above sea level.

On this occasion all four of us ate. We had fish of various types, all fresh-caught. Starters, main course, dessert and drinks, including wine, came to ?190 or around £140. It may sound expensive but the meal was superb. Cala Rossa would have been worth the visit for the food alone. The beach was just a bonus.

Zonza
~~~~~~~
The first time we went to Solenzara was to arrange a scuba session for the kids with the local diving club. We decided to see a bit more of the hinterland on our way back and so decided to return via Zonza. One of the other families at our accommodation had recommended it.

The road to Zonza goes inland from Solenzara. The map shows a winding road climbing up into the mountains and negotiating narrow carriageways in places. What we found was not quite what we expected.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying it should be avoided, in fact anything but. I have never had such an enjoyable drive since my wife and I drove our old and much beloved MG Midget back from Cannes to Champagnole via Grasse some 25 years ago.

The scenery is simply stunning. The mountain peaks all along the route are spectacular. None have been ground down by the weather. They look as though the Earth had pushed them up out of the sea only yesterday. The road winds around steep cliffs and hangs above mountain streams although, at this time of year the water levels are quite low.

We discovered that a lot of work was going on to widen the narrowest parts of the route but we had caught the work in progress when the widening bit had been done but the resurfacing bit had not. Consequently the journey was a bit rough in places. Fortunately it wasn't my car!

Not all of the route has been widened, particularly where
it passes though the trees. Here the road remains wide enough only for one vehicle and so great care needs to be taken. Locals seem to regard all roads as racetracks and this part is no exception. You may also get caught behind slow-moving vehicles such as campervans. There are few opportunities to pass unless the more considerate drivers pull over for you.

My daughter had brought her camera with her and was forever asking us to pull over so that she could take pictures. To be honest, we probably would have done anyway. Virtually every kilometre there was somewhere to stop to see yet another breathtaking view.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the road from Solenzara to Zonza has to qualify as one of the World's great drives. It would have taken an hour without stopping. It took us two.

Eventually, at a height of over 1200 metres we reached the top of the pass. Here there is a large shrine of the sort often found on continental mountain passes. The road descends from here by a much wider road, dropping 500 metres down to the little crossroads town of Zonza.

Now, you won't want to visit Zonza for the town. It's all about getting there. The town has little by way of attractions but what it does have is an excellent restaurant at which to break your journey. L'Auberge du Sanglier takes its name from the wild boar that are supposed to abound throughout Corsica. We were warned to always watch out for these animals running across the road. In fact we failed to see a single one the entire time we were in Corsica!

The restaurant is located right at the crossroads, beside the war memorial. The view from its terrace is superb. The food isn't bad either. All four of us had a very enjoyable three-course lunch there for the princely sum of ?102.10 or about £75. Recommended.

The return journey to Porto Vecchio was direct and by much easier though less spectacular roads. We did come across the
Barocaggio reservoir, which supplies the drinking water for the region. We stopped to enjoy a very pleasant 15 minutes here.

There was one place where the view was the equal of what we had seen before. The location advertised a waterfall as well. We didn't find the waterfall but we did enjoy the view.

Scuba Diving
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My wife and I have done scuba diving before, in Kos. I found it an interesting experience but not necessarily one I wanted to repeat. My breathing is not that good since an accident in a science lesson at school some 40 years ago damaged my lungs. I tend to consume a tank of air very quickly, notwithstanding the fact that I am a novice and so will use up the air faster than an experienced diver anyway.

My son had done scuba diving on a JBL holiday some years ago. My daughter has never done it. However, they both said they would like to have a go. We booked a novice session in the early evening with the Subaquatique Club de la Cote des Nacres at Solenzara.

These people were very friendly and we managed to get by in a mixture of French and English. The dive lasted an hour and cost £25 each. The club supplied all the equipment. It was all in excellent condition and the only problem was that my daughter had trouble finding a mask that fitted her properly, despite trying about a dozen different ones.

This club did their diving from the beach. This wasn't ideal as the beach was mostly large stones and so getting out into the water was not easy. However, they enjoyed their session. My daughter was in two minds as to whether or not she would want to do it again but I think that was affected by the mask problems.

Simply Travel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We went with this company because they had the holiday we wanted and for no other reason. On our experiences with them I'm not sure I could recommend them or recommend avoiding them. Certainly they did nothing to h
elp resolve the car hire problems when we arrived, leaving us to sort out the problems ourselves. Mind you, I'm not sure what they would have been able to do anyway. Perhaps they Simply shouldn't have used Europcar (sorry about that).

We only saw their rep once during the holiday, when she came to make sure that we were settled in OK and that we realised that the site owners would appreciate it if we didn't use their towels to dry ourselves off if we had been using fake tan sun screen. Apparently they had had several towels ruined by guests who had.

The next time we saw them was at the airport on our return. Once again, all they seemed interested in doing was surveying us about our experiences. The queuing to check in was a disaster with people pushing in all over the place. They did nothing to help sort it out despite complaints from those who were suffering these intrusions.

We may use them again. It will depend on the holiday.

Conclusions
~~~~~~~~~~~~
All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. I would happily go back again, to see more of the island. A two location fortnight would be nice.

I can whole-heartedly recommend Corsica, based on our visit but I strongly recommend you make your hire car arrangements BEFORE you go.