Off to L'Ile de Beauté

"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges  - Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!" - Rudyard Kipling, 'The Explorer', 1898

Corsica is a French island in the Mediterranean, between France and Italy.  It is known for it's rugged landscape, earthy cuisine and wines and its independent people.  I was there for a week in 1999, but because of a back injury, was laid up in a hotel bed for most of that time.  So I always wanted to go back. In 2013 the Tour de France was there for a few days and it was watching the race, going over the tiny, twisty roads and through the fantastic landscape that we decided to make a trip someday soon.  This is the time.

We will fly into Marseille, spend a day with our friend Jean Marie Peyraud of Domaine Tempier, then take the overnight ferry to the capital of Corsica, Ajaccio.  This is the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte.  We will spend about 4 days on the island, visiting the coast and the mountains, hopefully getting in a hike or two.  Then we will take a ferry to Sardinia, an Italian island just south of Corsica. There is a big local festival here, in the town of Sassari.


                                                   

                                                   

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Then we will go back to the French mainland, ending up in Arles for a few days.  It is near here, in the walled village of Saintes Maries de la Mer, that there is a big gypsy festival on May 24th and 25th.  Friends of ours have been to this and we have learned that it is one of the great festivals of Europe.

Then we will head north a couple of hours to see the new reproduction of the Chauvet Cave, made famous in Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams".  This is a cave, discovered about 20 years ago, with cave paintings that are about 38,000 years old!  You can't go into the actual cave, but the French have built a reproduction of it and just opened it to the public.

We will end up in Nice and fly home from there, traveling across Provence.





So as always, you are invited to come on along with us on our latest adventure, as we continue our search for the tasty, colorful, exotic, beautiful and friendly.