France
08 July 2010 | Ajaccio - Corsica
Jane, hot and sunny
So what's new? Well our friends Don and Liz, from New Zealand, left us last week having stayed on board for an extra ten days. They offered us their boat again, to use in the Whitsundays, when we are next in Australia. It was a perfect arrangement as we plan to have a family reunion there 18 months time.
It was great fun having Don and Liz on board with lots of laughs and good memories to share. We moved along the French coast with them to the Isles Hyeres, we loved Porquerolles (pork rolls as we lovingly called it) and stayed there for a few days to wait out a bad weather front. We experienced some heavy rainfall; which caused flooding and some interesting sea experiences (see photos) sad to say we were told of 15 deaths and the airport was closed for several days afterwards.
From Pork Rolls (such delightful spot) we headed to Villefranche via St. Tropez. To be honest the Rivera was a bit bling for us, but we REALLY loved Villefranche. Lots of character with cobbled pedestrian streets, quayside bars/restaurants, market, etc. it was a great place to wait for a good weather window to cross to Corsica.
Once we reached Corsica (Calvi) the weather improved and we at last started to enjoy evening dinners in the cockpit and once again wear swim gear. Calvi is a wonderful place to spend some time with its 13th century citadel dominating the town. Apparently this is where Nelson lost his right eye when he was attacking Calvi in 1794. The harbour front is a perfect place to sit, drink and people watch; which is something the French seem to love to do. They also are into eating Pizza and ice cream, it is beginning to show as they are not all the slim race they used to be!!
Having now spent some time in France we have some interesting thoughts we would like to share. The French we have found are a charming race. We love the way they greet each other, whether they are male or female, hey even male to male they do the kissy kissy thing and always show physical affection to each other - we find it delightful. They also love the way we try to speak French to them, more often then not their English is so much better than ours, but they seem so happy to hear us try to speak their language that they encourage us to continue not letting us know that they are often fluent in English!!
Then there is the history and culture of the land. Can you imagine there are 67 forts along the coast of Corsica, each with its own character and beauty? Each one we come open we enjoy. The other day we went to the Fesch Museum in Ajaccio, which houses the second largest collection, after the Louvre, of 14 to 19th century Italian Painters - what a treat. Of course there is the food, well it certainly opens up all the senses, such an adventure with smell, sight and taste in the markets and stores to explore. The French also have such style, we could spend a fortune here, not just on clothes but on household items too - we have never seen anything like it. Of course just people watching (which is the national pastime) is also a ton of fun - especially over a Pastis or wine at the end of the day. Did we mention wine? Hey at 2 euro a bottle we are happy campers!!
Corsica is 100 miles off the French coast and we have been traveling down the West side. The area has high jagged granite mountains and when we arrived in Calvi there was snow to be seen on the top of one of them - an impressive backdrop. On our route down we have found some lovely spots, one bay we thoroughly enjoyed was called Girolata, only reached by the sea, although some tourist boats would arrive for the day.
We are also obviously interesting to the local customs in France, as we have been boarded four times so far. Passports, boat papers, and then the boat is checked over. It seems that not many Canadian (or for that matter New Zealand or Australian) boats visit Corsica. In fact since we have been here we have hardly heard a word of English, not sure when the tourist season starts but we are very surprised, there are not even any English cruising boats.
We have been enjoying the company of Fabuloso (an Australian boat we met first in the Caribbean) since we left Port St. Louis. We have had a problem with our generator and so they have been making water for us, in turn we have been able to help them with diving gear (to sort out a rope around their prop) and navigational help as their system was out for a few weeks. We hope to finally sort out the generator today, Russell has spent hours in the engine room and at last we have all the parts we need to finish the job. To get parts in France takes weeks, so we have been ordering from England (cheaper too) and getting within days!!
Now we do not have an agenda, so we will play catch up on cleaning and chill out in some of the delightful anchorages they have here. We plan to visit Bonifacio and maybe Porto Vecchio before we head off to Sardinia, we will try to keep blog updated on a monthly basis. Hope this finds everyone well and enjoying summer.