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.
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