Category: Corsica 2020

06:25 Berlin (Tegel) AF 1135 to Paris (CDG) arrive 08:15
The bus to Orly takes about 90 minutes.
15:55 Paris (Orly – Terminal 3) AF4468 to Calvi, arrive 16:25

Hotel Calvi Marina https://www.hotel-mariana.com/en/ Hôtel Mariana, Avenue Santa Maria, 20260 CALVI

First impressions – Calvi airport is enjoyably tiny. Starlings deafening in the palm trees by the seafront. Fish & chips / salad in one of the few open restaurants for an expensive €70 (with 500 ml of Sicilian red). Snow on the mountain tops.

The sun rose over the mountains at quarter past eight.

Calvi beach

Stock up at Spar Supermarket – Route de Calenzana, 20260 Calvi

Drive to Piana 2 h

Look who we bumped into on top of a hill!

This fellow wasn‘t very talkative.

Les calanches de Piana porto korsika unesco

Résidence de la Tour, Piana https://www.booking.com

Walk 13 – 7 km 3 h

The walk goes to the tower on the hill at the end.

The link for the guys with a drone Youtube channel

Picnic looking down into Cala di Palu.

Corsican colours

Friar‘s Cowl

Corsican steps

Kim thinking lofty thoughts

The view from our balcony – Residence de la Tour Piana

Last look around Piana

The house where we stayed.

Bits of the village not yet done up.

Drive to Ajaccio 1.5 h

Ajaccio apartment https://www.booking.com €500 cash deposit required.

Evening walk along new EU-sponsored footpath (narrowing the road!).

Walk 27 – Sentier des Douaniers

There was so much to enjoy on this walk, we only did half of it.

Shadow selfie

Our picnic spot

Quick look at Ajaccio (pronounced Adjgaksio) after discovering that Napo-Rama is closed for the winter.

Window in Ajaccio.

Drive to Corte 1h 25 m

Well-aged entrance to the apartment.

Corte apartment https://www.booking.com

First impressions can be deceptive. Great apartment! Check out the wash-basin.

On the way up through the village.

View from the belvedere up to the old castle.

From one mountain goat to the next.

Small, free contemporary art museum in Corte https://www.frac.corsica

Gerhild shows solidarity with the Corsican women.

Kim is trying to understand the Corsican man.

The motto over our fireplace –

Friends are silent angels who put us back on our feet when our wings no longer know how to fly.

Corte tourisme walks

Walk 20 with a picnic today and a nice blue February sky.

Peekaboo

Kim‘s Corsican Cone hat

That‘s Corte castle down there.

Stony steps keep you on your toes.

Mirror, mirror on the wall…

Cassano

Beautiful walk to Montemaggiore on Valentine’s day.

Eglise de Montegrosso

What is Fiona photographing?

The living room in the morning

The view from the balcony

Coffee at Spar

Swinging time on the beach

Biggles on the beach

Corsican February

Another beautiful day.

Fango river

Having a little rest.

The world famous zebra stone.

Concert of Corsican songs

Kim tangled with a Triffid.

This pair really sock it to them.

Have you heard the one about …

Look at the wild asparagus which Fiona & Andy collected – yum!

Played Keith Haring cards in the evening – Black Lady aka Hearts

Kite flying into the sun to confuse the mice.

Almond blossom

The Asphodel

People used them to make crosses in order to protect the harvest and with the dry leaves they filled mattresses. Its popular names is fiori di morti – “flower of the dead”. The official name of the variety found in Corsica is in fact Asphodelus ramosus.

When heated its bulbs explode like fireworks, on the feast day for Saint John the Baptist children hold them in the fire built in the village square and then knock them against stones to make them bang.

For centuries it was planted near tombs to nourish the dead. It also fed the living.
The asphodel is edible: its bulb can be made into a kind of bread. It lost its importance as food after the introduction of the potato in the 18th century. The asphodel became known as “the bread of the poor”. It continued to be appreciated for its medicinal properties in treating ailments such as indigestion, coughs, inflammations, ulcers, toothache, as well as tuberculosis…

Source: https://www.terracorsa.info/aspho.html

Walk to the cemetery and back. Andy photographing us photographing him.

Corsican curiosity.

Notre dame de la Serra

Picnic under the church.

As the sun sets on our last full day on Corsica…

Drive from Cassano to Bastia airport (Googlemaps link) takes at least 1 hour 50 minutes.

14:15 Bastia AF4460 to Paris (Orly), arrive 15:50
20:40 Paris (CDG) to Berlin (Tegel), arrive 22:25