Corsica

Prepare yourself, this is going to be a long one...

One of the best things about living in France is the vacation! This year, Michelin required employees to take a minimum of 3 weeks off, in a row. For the first week of vacation, we decided to go to the French island of Corsica. I should probably not have referred to it as French, even though it is. Corsicans like to consider themselves independent of France. They refer to France as the "continent". They are extremely protective of their land, and we have heard more than one story about houses built by foreigners (whether they really are from another country, or if they are just from the continent) being destroyed. Foreign investors are strongly, shall we say, discouraged by Corsicans (a big part played by the Corsican mafia). More than one chain, high-rise hotel has been bombed before completion. Mafia or no mafia, we had heard amazing things about the island and couldn't wait for a relaxing beach vacation.

In order to get to the island, we first had to drive the 6 hours to Nice, then take a 3 hour ferry ride to the port of Ile Rousse, then a 20 minute drive to our rental. In the days leading up to our departure day, Matthew got a little worried about traffic after talking to guys at work. Our ferry was leaving from Nice at 5:00pm. The guys at work told Matthew the normal 6 hour drive would take us at least 10! We decided at the last minute to leave Friday night and drive as far as we could, spend the night in a hotel, and drive the rest Saturday morning. Except for a few spots, traffic wasn't too bad. After about 5 hours (at 1:00am in the morning) we decided to stop and find a hotel. I used the GPS to find a little town that seemed to have several hotel options. We stopped at 4 different hotels and they were all full! So, we got back on the road and drove another 30 minutes to Cannes (which is only 30 minutes from Nice). While driving, I was again using the GPS to find hotels, but this time, I called the hotels first. Finally, the 4th hotel I called had rooms available. At 2:00am we finally checked into our hotel. The good news was, we got to sleep-in Saturday morning and we only had a 30 minutes drive to Nice. We parked the car at the port, ate lunch, and wandered around Nice just long enough to fall in love with the city. It has the most amazing color of blue water, great architecture, a port full of colorful wooden boats (and some ridiculously expensive yachts), and these charming narrow streets packed with great shops. About 3:30 we drove to the opposite end of the port and got in line for the ferry. Unfortunately, our ferry was delayed and didn't leave until 7:00. After our 3 hour ferry ride, we finally arrived at our rental around 10:30pm.



Most of our week was spent on the little beach just down from our rental. We also ventured into Calvi, the village closest to our rental. It had tons of restaurants along the water at the port, and lots of stores along small pedestrian streets. Corsica is known for its wine, and being an island, there is always really fresh seafood on the menus. Since our rental also had a full kitchen, Matthew and I stayed in and cooked several nights and enjoyed the sunset from our patio.




Bertrand comes to Corsica every year with his family. He and Claire came for 2 weeks, and luckily their time overlapped with ours. Matthew and I drove the 2 hours Saint Florent to visit them one day. Bertrand and Claire were camping in Corsica on land owned by a family friend. The family that owned the land built a building in the middle that contains showers, bathrooms, several refrigerators, and storage space. Families that stayed there chose a spot on the land and set up their tents, tables, chairs, and various cooking apparatuses. Claire and I spent the morning swimming and on the beach with Lisa and the family friends that were still on the island. Matthew and Bertrand spent the morning snorkeling. For lunch, Claire cooked an awesome Vietmanese pork dish, and then while Lisa (and Bertrand) napped, Matthew and I went into the village of Saint Florent to explore.
On our way back to Bertrand's something kind of funny happened to us. We were driving through the little village, which was very crowded, when this little, old lady stepped into the road and started waving frantically at us. Matthew slowed down, and she stepped almost in front of our car and started motioning for us to roll down the window. She stood in the middle of the street with her little bag of tomatoes, and asked us to give her a ride home. Before we could even react, she was walking around the car to get into the back seat. She looked like someone's grandma, so we weren't too afraid... She actually turned out to be very sweet. She told us that up until a few weeks ago, she had her son with her to drive her around. Now, every time she needs to get into or out of town, she waves down a young couple (always a young couple, because old people "don't want to help me"). What spunk! We drove her about a mile down the road, dropped her and her tomatoes off, and continued on our way.
The afternoon was spent rock jumping and swimming some more. Remember the Corsican mafia I told you about? One of the "houses" we passed while walking back from the beach, is owned by a French family from the "continent". Bertrand told us that every year his house is basically taken apart, so each year when he returns he has to replace doors, windows, etc. It is all because he is not Corsican! Matthew and I stopped in Saint Florent for dinner before driving back to Calvi.



One of my favorite things about going to the beach are the sunsets. Corsica didn't disappoint.


On our last full day on the island, Matthew and I went on a boating excursion with a local sailing company. We rode on a catamaran with about 15 other people along the coast of Corsica. We sailed all the way to the Grotte des Veaux Marins (a natural sea cave). Here, we were supposed to snorkel and/or use their sea kayaks to explore. Unfortunately, the ocean was really rough that day, and the captain was worried about our safety. So we sailed back to another cove, with breathtaking blue water, and swam, snorkeled, and kayaked there.



Saturday, we packed up our rental and had to check out at 10:00am. Our ferry didn't leave until 8:30pm, so we headed to the beach one last time. After taking the ferry back to Nice, we checked into our hotel about 1:30am. We spent Sunday exploring Nice some more, and about 4:00pm we started driving home. Since traffic was supposed to be really bad again, we stayed off the main highway and let the GPS pick another route for us. We ended up on some very small roads, driving through the middle of nowhere. The drive was breathtaking though, and we were treated to an amazing sunset during our drive home.