Chuck and I commented that this was the third year in a row
we’ve been to France. After not having
been in France since 2001, it was nice to get back again, and all three times
have been areas that have been new to me:
In 2010 we had the pleasure of doing a World War II Venues tour that
took us to the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, as well as to Compiegne and Reims
– all new experiences. On our 2011
cruise we visited St. Malo, where we had the opportunity to make the climb to
Mont St. Michel – another new experience.
This year we’re in Corsica, an island off the coast of Italy which is
now part of France.
Ajaccio, where we are docked, was founded in 1492 (easy to
remember) as a colony of Genoa. It was
considered a part of Genoa until 1755 when it was sold to France. Probably Ajaccio’s (and Corsica’s) greatest
claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Corsicans are very proud to claim him as
a favorite son, but when he was a child, his mother was driven from their
family home after her husband died, something that Napoleon never ever
forgot. The home where he was born is
now a museum.
When we returned to the ship after our shore excursion in
Naples, we found a message telling us that it would be necessary to tender in
Ajaccio. Having thought we’d experienced
our last tendering in Phuket, Thailand, the entire ship was not very happy, but
apparently the weather had been bad enough that the port had not had the
opportunity to dredge the dock area to allow for a ship the size of the
Amsterdam. However, to make a long story
short, the port put forth monumental effort with a little break in the weather
and managed to dredge the port enough to allow us to dock! Mass relief!
Arriving earlier than planned and not having to tender
allowed us time to get off the ship and wander the town before our afternoon
shore excursion. Being a Saturday, the
town was having their typical French market so we enjoyed browsing the booths
there, which included all sorts of interesting (and reminiscent) wares. I absolutely had to buy a baguette, having
fallen in love with them when I studied in Grenoble. I wish I could have found some pain sucré,
one of my college favorites (a very small loaf of bread covered with granules
of sugar). We wandered through the fish
market and got a kick out of looking (but definitely not buying) the various
kinds of seafood, including squid, shrimp, crab, lobster, and what looked like
eel and catfish.
Unfortunately it started to rain, and since I’m still
fighting the cough I’ve had since Mumbai, I decided it was time to head back
toward the ship – earlier than I’d anticipated, but trying to avoid further respiratory
problems.
The entire time I walked the streets, I thought of Lincoln-Way
French teachers Dawn Floyd and Karina Tulley and their students, whom I’ve so
enjoyed subbing for. I wished I could
have bottled up some of the Corsican atmosphere and taken it home with me to
share with them all!
As we waited on the bus for our shore excursion to begin,
Chuck commented that the port seemed to be loaded with policemen, all of whom
were well-armed. He had taken a picture
this morning, and when he asked me to translate the sign, we decided that
Nicolas Sarkozy had been in Corsica on the 13th and wondered if that
might be the reason for all the policemen.
As we set out on our excursion, our tour guide confirmed this theory,
explaining that Corsica doesn’t have a large enough police force to protect the
President so they had to bring police over from the mainland.
All three of us (Al, Chuck, and I) took the shore excursion,
Panoramic
Prunelli. We couldn’t have been
happier with our choice! The excursion
took us out of Ajaccio and up into the mountainous regions of Corsica. Driving along narrow roads with lots of
switchbacks and hairpin turns was not for the faint of heart, and fortunately
we had a very skilled bus driver who made it look easy, even when he was
negotiating roads that gave him only inches on each side of the bus! The scenery was nothing short of spectacular and
impossible to put the beauty into words!
We made a few photo stops that allowed us to get off the bus and look
out over the picturesque scenery, all the time watching for traffic on the
extremely narrow roads. At one point we
encountered several goats meandering down the road, and we wondered how our
driver would maneuver around them. The
tour guide joked that she called the farmers and told them to let the goats out
to give the tourists a thrill. We rolled
through tiny villages built into the sides of steep cliffs, wishing we could
stop and stroll through at our leisure, but realizing that it would be quite impractical
to have a tour bus park on the road there and block traffic.
At one point we stopped at a local restaurant to sample
local foods: some cheeses, sausages, and baked goods. I picked up a map on a side table and asked
the waitress to show me where we were.
It took her awhile to find it because, as she explained, the roads were
so narrow that they didn’t show up on the map!
That certainly was easy to believe!
Wildlife wasn’t abundant, but we were just as happy not to
encounter some of the many wild boars that roam the island. We would have enjoyed seeing some deer, but
all we saw in the wild were birds.
However, in addition to the goats I mentioned earlier, we saw lots of
sheep, cows, horses, and some donkeys, which apparently are commonly used by
locals in the mountains for transportation.
Our day wasn’t the sunniest; the skies were cloudy for most
of the tour, so we can only begin to imagine how spectacular the scenery would
have been with clear skies. I’m sure the
locals were hoping for rain though because we could see that the lakes were
very low. Since they use
hydroelectricity for power, they need the water to provide the power. As a result, and with virtually no industry
other than tourism and agriculture, there is practically no pollution on the
island – a far cry from some of the Asian ports we visited.
Since we arrived back to Ajaccio slightly early, our guide was
able to give us a short tour of the city.
Apparently, although the people of Ajaccio readily claim Napoleon as a
favorite son, the rest of the Corsicans do not.
Her comment was, “He may have done things for Ajaccio, but he certainly
didn’t for the rest of Corsica!” We
passed a couple statues in Ajaccio in honor of Napoleon, but we missed seeing
his birthplace.
Our stay in Corsica was far too short: it was a wonderful surprise to all of
us! Everyone we talked with, most of
whom had never been to Corsica before, commented that they would come back in a
heartbeat! With the beauty of the island
as well as the friendliness of the people, this will definitely be one of those
places we would like to visit again – and hope we have an opportunity to spend
more time here.
BT
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