Napoleon's hometown

Ajaccio (week 35)

If the number of statues and historic markers is any indication, the greatest export from Ajaccio is Napoleon.  The Bonapartes were one of the original families to come over and live in Genoese Ajaccio soon after its founding in 1492.  By the time Napoleon was born, the family was living in town at the Maison Bonaparte, owned by the family up to 1923 and now a museum.  Many of the artifacts in the museum are from various siblings, but the main attraction for us was the painstaking recreation of the room decor - from the wallpaper to the ceiling art to the card tables.  Of course, you can see the room where legend has it that Napoleon was born (on a couch in a sitting room because Mom went into labour at church and didn't make it to the bedroom in time), and also a bedroom he stayed in during one of his adult visits.

Other Napoleonic sites we saw were the Grotte Napoleon (where he supposedly played and "sat looking out at the harbour and dreaming of glory" as a child), his enormous monument at the Place d'Austerlitz (known locally as the Casone - one wonders what Napoleon would have thought of the local teens playing pétanque on his parade ground), Place Foch (where a statue presides over the local market), and the Place de Gaulle, apparently one of the largest city squares in Europe (featuring the statue Napoléon et ses frères).  We also tried to see the Salon Napoléonien in the Hôtel de ville, but ended up walking into a conference presentation being held in the room.  Finally, we drove out to the Arboretum des Milelli, the country estate of the Bonapartes, located in an extensive olive grove; Napoleon stayed here with Murat and some other generals on his way back to Paris after abandoning his army in Egypt.  The house itself is closed, but the grove is open and is a pleasant walk with some nice views over the city.  There is also a formal botanical garden with little green labels giving the plants' scientific names.

The last Bonaparte site we visited was the Musée Fesch, named after Cardinal the Prince Joseph Fesch, Napoleon's uncle.  He built a palace and an Imperial Chapel, where many of Napoleon's immediate family are buried; naturally it is closed for the winter, like every other religious building on Corsica.  Cardinal Fesch was an avid and knowledgeable art collector - much of his collection is still on display here, including a Boticelli and two Titians.  Unfortunately, many of the most famous works that were once part of his collection (from Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, and others) are now dispersed throughout Europe's larger museums.

Genoese Aiacciu

Ajaccio (week 34)

Starting in 1530, the Genoans built a series of 90 (!) defensive towers around the island of Corsica as part of their campaign against the Barbary pirates.  We could see two of them from the balcony of our hotel, which was located ~10 km west of Ajaccio on the coastal road.  The towers are in the Iles Sanguinaires nature preserve.  One of them - Torra di a Parata  - is on the mainland coast and is accessible in the winter.  The other - Torra di Castelluchju - is on an island in the nature preserve.  The path around the headland and up to the tower is the perfect distance for the boys, so we had a nice visit there.

Clockwise from top left: Tour Fautea (near Zonza), Tour de Parata, and the tourist info screen on Ajaccio's towers

The site of the current city of Ajaccio was first colonized by Genoa in 1492 and remained a Genoese stronghold through the period of Corsican independence, finally undergoing an orderly exchange of Genoese for French troops at the Citadel when the island changed hands by treaty (actually by sale to France) in 1768.  Previous to the Genoese town, there was a nearby Corsican town, being at one point large enough to have a cathedral.  That cathedral was replaced by the current Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption - built starting in 1577 - which is a small but cheery cathedral with some well-preserved (or restored) chapels.  When we first arrived a funeral was taking place, so we went for lunch.  Unfortunately, the waterfront is under extensive construction so what was normally a nice view of the harbour and marina from the restaurant patio (it was warm enough to eat outside) was instead a view of a corrugated steel barrier.

moat donkey!

Of the multiple other religious buildings in town, we could not find any open, so we had to content ourselves with reading the National Historic Site plaques mounted on their walls.  As for the Citadel, it is off-limits because it is still an active military installation with, for some reason, donkeys living in the moat.

Of beaches and snowstorms

Propriano

Porto-Vecchio (week 34)

Our route around Corsica took us along the south end of Corsica across the mountain roads from Ajaccio to Bonifacio, where we stayed overnight.  The trip back to Ajaccio took us up the east coast through Porto-Vecchio, stopping for a traditional Corsican lunch at Ghisonaccia (featuring the largest beans we've ever seen), then along a frightening but picturesque mountain road to Vivario where we joined the Corte-Ajaccio highway and thence back to Ajaccio.

Porto-Vecchio

As we went along we stopped at various beaches.  At Propriano there is a neat little pebble beach - your feet sink into the tiny pebbles and unlike the larger pebbles of the Riviera, it was not at all painful on the feet.  Craig dipped his feet in the water and declared it to be about the same temperature as Summerville water in August; the waves are perhaps not as large, but there were no jellyfish either, so it balances out.  Porto-Vecchio is one of the main resort areas on the east coast, and the next beach we checked out.  It has very soft sand and is sheltered (very small waves).  The beach stretches out around the bay and includes various rocky formations to play on, which the kids enjoyed.  It's a little hard to find, as the turnoff is only signposted if you are coming from the south (it is just before you reach Porto-Vecchio town).  Finally, we walked along the beach that runs in front of the seawall and Citadel in Ajaccio.  It also features some very nice and soft sand, although it is quite narrow and we suspect it is a zoo in the warm months.

Into the clouds near Vivario

As you go across the mountains, there is a very distinct drop in temperature, warming up just as distinctly as you go back down.  Unfortunately, it was an overcast and drizzly day on our trip across the waist of Corsica.  We passed a signpost for 920 m in elevation, and everything was fine.  We passed the old Napoleonic prison of Fortin de Pasciloa, now a ruin, and stretched our legs.  Shortly thereafter, we climbed into the clouds, and a little while after that, at the Col de Vizzavona (the high point of the Corte-Ajaccio road), it started to snow.  Unfortunately for us, French drivers are not smart winter drivers, often stopping on the uphills (in the middle of the lane!) to ponder the situation.  Sometimes they got out to put on snow chains, blocking both lanes in places.  At its worst there was about 2 cm of frozen slush on the road, but a few kilometres further on we started coming back down and the snow quickly disappeared.

The southern end of France

Mega Smerelda in Ajaccio harbour

Bonifacio (week 34)

For the first part of the kids' school break, we decided to head to Corsica.  We took the overnight ferry from Toulon to Ajaccio, then directly from there to the far south end of the island.  The ferries are very much like cruise ships, with cabins to spend the night in.  The one pictured here (which we took home) had several restaurants.  It also had a dance bar, piano bar, pool, and spa - all but the last were closed, presumably because it's the off-season and the ferry is only 1/2 full.

Our first destination was Bonifacio, founded in 828 when Corsica was part of Tuscany (the Corsican language derives from Tuscan).  However, almost all the visible fortifications and landmarks are from the Genoese period (from 1284) or the French period (from 1769).  Unfortunately, a lot of restoration work still needs to be done - some is currently being carried out on the two Genoese churches in the Haute Ville (so they were closed, as was Torrione, the modern keep in the centre of the fortifications).  In fact, the tourist map encourages people to "pick up an interesting souvenir when walking the old walls"!  We did walk along the perimeter walls, even though the day became quite windy and cool.  We were further disappointed because the restored Bastion de l'étendard of the citadel was also closed, as was the Escalier du Roi d'Aragon, the cliffside stairway from the Mediterranean to the fort.

The highlight of the day was the nature walk along the sheltered cliffs north of the citadel.  This far south (~300 km south of the Riviera), the land was turning green and the rosemary was blooming; the air was scented with cedar.  Looking south you can see Sardinia, and the cliffs have all kinds of weird and wonderful shapes, because the sandstone is easily worn by the surf and storms.  There is also access to the small Plage de Sutta-Rocca.  After our touring, we had a dinner from a little hole-in-the-wall pizza place (open specially for the school break!).