Our last day in France, October 3

Let me tell you about dinner last night. We drove down to the beach, for yet another Mediterranean meal and found a place called La Bourride. To be quite honest, I don’t know whether this was a highly rated restaurant or not. All I know is that we had a fabulous meal – the best on our entire trip. If you’ve been following this blog then you know we’ve eaten pretty well. So when I say this was the best, that’s noteworthy.
We started off with Tattinger Champagne aperitifs and chose the menu for 39 Euros, which was an excellent deal given the average 35-40 Euros price for just main dishes. Dawn had a scallop and gambas entrée and I had duck foie gras – surprise! For main dish we had the same thing – the duo of fresh fish, dourade & rougette on risotto. Dessert was a chocolate fondant gateaux for Dawn & I had a carmelized apple dessert on shortbread. As we sat looking down the beach towards an ultra modern apartment complex in Villeneuve, we thought we were in heaven.


We went down for breakfast on our last day in France. C’est domage! As we sat with Marie Paul, her husband and another visiting couple, we started discussing plans for the day. At that point, we realized we really didn’t have any. They recommended a perched village nearby called Biot. How is it we’d never heard of this place? Suddenly we had plans for the day.

Do perched villages ever grow tiring? Possibly, after the number we’ve been to on this trip. I’ve mentioned before that often the most impressive aspect of these villages is the view from a distance. When you start exploring them internally, they start to look very much alike. I don’t know. Maybe we’re getting jaundiced. Maybe we need to go home. Oh, I forgot. We’re going home tomorrow. Again – quel domage! Sorry, by the way if my French spellings aren’t 100% correct. I’m trying, OK?

Anyway, back to Biot. The nicest thing about this place verses say an Eze, Gordes or even Saignon, was the total lack of tourists. Because it’s famous for blown glass, it does get its share of visitors, but apparently not today. This was a nice way to wean ourselves off perched villages. St. Jacobs doesn’t exactly qualify.


Continuing today’s itinerary, we wandered through Antibes and then drove down the Cote d’Azur towards Nice. The wind was up so there were numerous kite surfers showing off along the beach. You really need to do this drive to appreciate why this is called the Cote d’Azur.

We continued on to the Cap 3000 in St. Laurent du Var, a huge shopping mall with a Galeries LaFayette. We finally got Dawn some new jeans and then we picked a couple of little quiche-type tarts, two gateaux St. Honare and a bottle of Auxey-Durress for lunch. We chose to hang at our mini-resort for the afternoon, eating on the terrace and then getting serious about packing. It turned out that weight is not an issue on this trip. Hallelujah!
We’ve had one fabulous month in France! Little more can be said. We are already anticipating our next visit. So, for now, it’s a bientot from France!

Back to Nice October 2, 2008

This is where we've been going for our wood stove pizzas in Ajaccio.

After a most enjoyable stay in Corsica, we boarded our ferry at 7:30. Of course, we’d been waiting in the terminal since 5:45, but that’s us. We promptly headed up to the restaurant for breakfast and before we knew it, we were off. The morning was slightly overcast, but I still got some nice pictures of Ajaccio from the water.


Our crossing was quite uneventful and a good deal smoother than the trip to Corsica. We hit some more glorious weather in Nice shortly before 2:00 and before we knew it, we were making our way through the heart of Nice. The harbour was packed with immense yachts and the city’s buildings also display their share of opulence.

We always like the drive along the Riveria at Nice down the Promenade Anglais with all the really high-end apartments and hotels that stare out on to the sea. Our destination was, once again, les Jardins Fragonard in Cagnes sur Mer which is really just a burb of metro Nice. We met Marie Paul , the owner, who took us to the third different room we’ve had in this place. Another shabby view of the gardens!

It was still early in the day, so we decided to make a return trip up to valley to St. Paul. We hadn’t been here for 4 years, but nothing much has changed. The stone-patterned streets are as cool as ever and of course the place teems with tourists – most of whom are off the cruise ships.



It seemed that the village is now primarily art galleries, which I suppose makes sense, given the moneyed tourists that wander its streets.



A short drive down the hill, we were back at our B&B. We enjoyed the garden view for a couple of hours before heading out for dinner.

Last full day in Corsica October 1

For the record, I have to say I’m really pleased with our decision to come to Corsica. The island, although there’s not a quick trip to be had to any destination, has incredible natural beauty. And let’s face it. I love driving these roads – Dawn not so much.

Today we thought we’d head up the west coast from Ajaccio. There were a few pretty villages on the way including Cargese, above. Also, a lot of the drive was along the coast affording views of beaches nestled in protective bays.
The second noteworthy village – another of the les Plus Beaux Villages- was Piana. To get the best view of this one, we drove up to the belevedere way above the town. It’s location, nestled amidst extremely jagged peaks was remarkable.

From here we headed down through the Callanches – what they call their rugged coastal mountains. We found the going slow, not only due to the narrow windy roads, but more so, due to the myriad of tour buses and tourists walking along the road. It was one photo op after another and I actually never got out of the car to take any pictures.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t take any pictures. I just didn’t have to get out of the car.

When we escaped the hordes in the Callanches, we came upon the last coastal town on our trip, Porto. With it’s perched castle guarding the entrance of the town, it was yet another beautiful coastal village.

Our route then took us inland to make a circular circuit back to Ajaccio. The drive continued to be breathtaking as we wound from one valley to the top of a ridge and then through the next valley. One had to be very alert here, not only because of the roads, but because of what was on the roads – all manner of domestic farm animals. We passed goats, pigs and cows, all looking for a better snack along the road. They particularly seemed to relish the leaves of the chestnut trees that were abundant throughout the area.
Of course, there were still several pretty little perched villages to make our way through.

Our return route brought us back along the coast and by this time it was lunchtime. As serendipity would have it, we came upon a very nice restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean called les Flots Bleus – the blue waves – and stopped there for lunch. Since they had escargots by the dozen on the menu, I couldn’t resist. This is actually the first time on this entire trip that I had escargots in a restaurant. Dawn chose a potato and leek soup to soothe her road battered stomach and we both had salads as well. The salads in France are great! They do have greens, but they also usually have warm items in them, like Dawn’s that had warm spaghetti and mine that had warm chicken gizzards.

We took the rest of the day slowly back in Ajaccio, preparing for our exit from the island tomorrow and finished off the day with pizza.

Ajaccio September 29 & 30, 2008

When we woke up this morning, we didn’t know we were in for a religious experience, as we headed off for the archeological site of Filitosa, not too far from where we were staying in Olmeto. This is a 1946 discovery of a settlement that existed 8000 years ago. The prominent features of this site are the well-preserved stone statue carvings of Mehnhir warriors.

As we began our self-guided tour we were totally on our own and there was very mystical music playing from speakers nestled throughout. At first we thought it was just a great mood setter. Then we encountered a group of people at one of the first settlement areas. Everyone was totally silent, as one by one they took turns standing in the centre of some of the habitation areas. They would move slowly and then stand in some sort of meditative state. When finished, each person left the area totally emotionally drained and in fact in some cases down right distraught. They were clearly involved in some level of mysticism we couldn’t appreciate and to be quite honest, we found the entire spectre, slightly creepy.

We quickly bypassed this group and moved on to the rest of the tour, which brought us past numerous stone carvings of Mehnhir warriors dating back at least 4000 years. Along

with many other amazing groupings of rocks, like the dinosaur above, we found the entire site fascinating. We did, however, get a little cosmic ourselves by the end of the tour.

Following our awakening at Filitosa, we drove to Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica and began our search for a hotel. We didn’t have to look far, since the first place on our list, The Imperial, had a room for 3 nights. The Imperial was right on the Mediterranean and about ¾ kilometre from the centre of town.

After settling in, we set off to explore the town and find an internet café. We stopped for lunch along the water for moules frites for Dawn and entrecote frites pour moi. We haven’t experienced much English in Corsica, so we found it a little humourous as we were lunching, when we heard a Brit pass by saying, “I’m not eating any more flamin’ squid.”
The architecture in Ajaccio is very striking and the views from town to the mountains beyond is equally awesome. There are also some not so shabby cars in this town like the Austin Martin below.

We succeeded in our internet café quest and posted the previous edition of this blog, then walked the streets and I bought a new pair of jeans. Dawn can’t shop this quickly.
Before dinner, we walked the other way down the beach from the hotel. Several sections of beautiful sandy beach run along the edges of town.
For dinner tonight we chose the pizza truck that was parked just down from the hotel. It had a wood burning stove and produced an amazing pizza with crème fraiche, ham, mushrooms, cheese and olives.

Tuesday, we arose to more startlingly azure skies and promises of more summer like temps. Today’s goal was to travel back to the interior, this time the central interior, to the town of Corte. This is probably the only town of any size in the whole interior of Corsica and probably for good reason. It is only 80 kilometres from Ajaccio, but that trip took us close to 2 hours. It was, however, an amazing drive and the peaks in this area exceed 2 kilometres.

Corte is quite picturesque and we found numerous tour buses parked at the base of town. The Petit Train was carting them all up to the Citadel at the top of town. This was not a tour we were interested in so instead we started driving up the Restonica Gorge road.

This was definitely another one of those “Is this really a two way road?” roads that wound up into the gorge, with steep precipices on the edge of the road. Dawn wasn’t really happy, especially when she found herself on the gorge side of the road and her brake foot was working over time. Even she will admit, however, that it was a spectacular drive. Along the way we stopped for a picnic at one of the few pull offs along the way.

On the way back down the gorge road we encountered more domesticated animals roaming the roads – this time cows. Clearly, the cows needed to travel large distances to find enough chow and the easiest route was – of course – the road.
There was no choice but to return to Ajaccio on the same road – not a lot of alternative routes possible on this island. We took a slightly different route through town, however, to get to our hotel and discovered the suburbs. I think I’ve already said it, but this is a very beautiful city.

Before dinner we took another walk along the water and around the citadel, which as it turns out is still an operating fort – no tours here. We continued into the heart of the city and thought we’d check out the location of the Fesch Gallery, which apparently has the best collection of impressionist art aside from the Louvre in Paris. This is because Cardinal Fesch from a couple hundred years ago was famous for having looted all these art works from elsewhere. Classic! It’s temporarily closed due to renovations.

We also had a nice walk around the marina which had a large percentage of operating fishing boats – not sure what their catch might be.
For dinner this evening we chose a restaurant on the beach that had a wood burning stove and specialized in items that might do nicely on that stove. Dawn had gambas done in papilotte and I had a lamb shank from the rotisserie. We loved our meal.
As it turns out, our hotel does indeed have wi-fi, but the older lady at the desk we asked didn't have a hot clue - too much new technology.

Last day in the Luberon and on to Corsica

Time sure flies when you’re having fun! It’s hard to believe that we’re almost at the end of our stay in the Luberon and that tomorrow we depart for Corsica. We’ve been very pleased with our accommodations here and our location in general and would readily return.

The morning was spent with neighbours Sheila and Cole. We started off at Chez Christine for breakfast and then drove on to the market in Lourmarin. This was another sprawling market through most of the town. The weather was very agreeable for a leisurely stroll.
On the way back to Saignon, we stopped for a photo at the borie that we found back in 2004 with Dennis & Jackie.

The afternoon was spent at the mas. Dawn did some ironing and the bags got packed up again.
We spent the later afternoon playing cards again with Sheila & Cole and then went upstairs to the Parker’s for drinks. They were very friendly, helpful people and we feel very fortunate to have found such a nice spot to visit. I’m fairly certain we will return.
For dinner tonight we went up to Le Baladin in Saignon. There are actually several choices for good dining in the village, but as this one was recommended by the Parkers, the decision about where to eat was made easy. This restaurant is very small and offers simply two entrees, two main dishes and three desserts. Fortunately, there was something for everybody this evening- foie gras and smoked salmon moelleux for starters; tournados of duck and a red fish for main course and chocolate cake, frommage blanc with honey and stewed seasonal fruit for dessert. It was a nice way to finish our time here.

At 4:00 Saturday morning, we were on the road to Toulon to catch our ferry to Ajaccio in Corsica. Not much traffic at this hour of the morning! In fact we only encountered 2 trucks in the first half hour of travel. We made Aix en Provence by 4:45 and got to Toulon just a little before 6:00. If it hadn’t been pitch black all the way, I’m imagining the scenery would have been remarkable, but the lack of traffic was a bonus.

After entering the port, we had a 1½hour wait to board the ship. This is easily the largest ship we’ve been on, with 4 decks for cars and 4 decks for people. There were even cabins, although we didn’t have one. The boat was not very crowded so we weren’t crammed in.

As we left Toulon, it became apparent that Toulon is a huge naval port as we sailed by all manner of naval vessels – battleship, aircraft carrier, submarine – you name it.


The trip started off smoothly, but very quickly we ran into 3 metre swells, at which time the barf bags started coming out all over the ship. Despite the fact that this was a large ship, it was really being thrown around and warnings about staying away from open railings and “sorry the elevators aren’t working”, became frequent.
In the course of the trip we were treated to two movies, The Queen and Transporter 2, en francais and with those and our books and of course a snore or two, the six hours went relatively fast. As we continued along the coast of Corsica to the southerly port of Ajaccio, I got hungry – Dawn was working on not flipping her biscuits - so we went up to the Gourmet Express and I had some lunch. I was thinking, “How civilized!” to eat well on a ferry when a man with a little dog stopped next to me and the dog began an extensive pee against a chrome post and onto the carpet. Vive la France! There were many dogs on the ship, by the way, and they actually had a little “relieving field” of gravel on the fly deck just for the pooches. We just take the dogs for granted now because they are everywhere, but I kind of chuckled when Dawn was trying on clothes in a store in Apt the other day and a dog poked his head out from under the changing room curtain.
Upon disembarking in Ajaccio, we made our way further south on the wide but windy Corsican roads to the village of Olmeto, where we’d booked a hotel. This country is one serious bump! There is hardly a flat section to be had and the peaks here aren’t plebian by any means, most topping out at two kilometers. We quickly realized we wouldn’t be seeing much of northern Corsica on this trip.

We found our hotel in Olmeto – Hotel Santa Maria - and although it’s quaint, we may not stay the entire five nights in Corsica here that we intended. It was a Michelin recommendation and they’ve been pretty reliable, but we’ll see how we feel after a couple of nights here. The village itself is yet another perched village and the Santa Maria is near the bottom of the perching. We’re thinking that we won’t see much of the rest of Corsica if we stay in this location for 5 nights.

Before dinner, which by the way in Corsica doesn’t start until 8:00, we drove down the coast to Propriano, which is the commerce city of the area. There are great sandy beaches here and a myriad of tourist shops. So far, we have noticed that Corsica is indeed significantly different from mainland France. The dialect they speak is harder to understand. The architecture is based more on stone than stucco and tonight’s meal was served family style. We had soup served in a terrine and took as much as we wanted. The charcuterie plate came the same way, as did the main course of lamb for Dawn and wild boar for me. The cheese course was served as 3 huge hunks of cheese that we just helped ourselves to. Dessert – Iles Flottante – was served a la carte, but for 23 Euros plus wine per person, we had an outstanding meal in the restaurant of our hotel. Bonus!

Sunday morning, the plan was to head to the south from Olmeto, so off we went. The first town of significance that we came upon was Sartene, which is one of the few wine towns in Corsica. Almost every town or village in Corsica is perched due the county’s topography, but because the light was just right, I got a great shot of this town’s profile.

Next, we drove down the coast. The roads in Corsica are actually very good – good surfaces and lots wide – however, not much in the way of straight, so once again this point A to point B thing is not quick. On the way to Bonafacio, we encountered an interesting rock formation resembling a lion. Dawn still hasn’t made out the lion in this shot.

Bonafacio was a destination worth driving to. It has a beautiful harbour below a town built on an amazing chunk of rock. Therefore, it is very touristy! But heh, we’re tourists and we loved it. There were way too many photo ops in this town and not just buildings!

We took the Petit Train from our car park and although the tour was en francais, we got a good overview of the town. We jumped of mid-way through the tour, walked the narrow streets and wound up finding a restaurant at the top of town for lunch.


We walked back down from the upper town to our car park after a great lunch and continued our journey, this time up the east coast of Corsica. The land was a little flatter along the coast, which made for easier driving, but at Porto Vecchio, we headed across the interior back to where we were staying on the west coast. From earlier appraisals of the maps, Dawn thought I was nuts to take this totally convoluted drive, but then, heh, what’s new? As we climbed, the skies darkened and the rain began, which was too bad because this was an amazing drive. At one of the summits, some 1500 metres above the coast, we came upon a fairly large village. Go figure! Our average speed for this island crossing was about 40 kph, which gives you some idea of the roads.
When we successfully made it to the west coast, the skies turned blue and we stopped for a walk through Propriano. We stopped for a drink here at the Napoleon Café before heading back to our hotel. While here, we got our regular Sunday phone call from Jessie. At this point in our journey it’s great to hear from Canada. They may not have any internet in the area, but the cell phone coverage is outstanding! Did I mention that Napoleon was born in Corsica and therefore there are lots of Napoleonic references?

By the time we made it back to Olmeto, the last of the sun was gracing the side of our hotel. We killed a couple of hours before the mandatory 8:00 dinner time, which means I worked on pics & today’s blog entry – not sure when this will get posted – and Dawn read and played cards. We dined again at our hotel for a second night, deciding now that we would head back to Ajaccio tomorrow for our remaining nights.