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.