Cap Corse

Cap Corse means two things; a delicious drink made of fortified wine spiked with quinine and the 40 km long peninsula that sticks out of the North end of Corsica and looks like a middle finger pointed at France.

We are now based at the bottom of Cap Corse in the smallest village yet, called Vallecalle. The parking provided by the B&B (A Casella) is on the narrow street in front of our room and you have to turn the passenger-side mirror in so it doesn't get knocked off by passing cars. Luckily there are no big American cars here.

Our luck with the weather finally ran out when it started raining yesterday afternoon and got worse today. But hoping for the best, we set out this morning to drive around Cap Corse. We started the day with breakfast from our B&B hostess Cathy Poggio who counseled us on things to see and not to bother with on the trip. Sound local advice.

I had wanted to see a lot of the Geonese towers that this coast is known for, but with the rain it wasn't worth the trek from the car to see most of them. And I didn't want to get my camera wet after having ruined one in the rain only last summer in New Zealand.

One of the villages we passed through was Nonza which has a church dedicated to Saint Julie, the patron saint of Corsica, who was crucified in 303 AD for her Christian beliefs. In the church there's a painting over the alter of St. Julie on the cross. It looked very strange to see a female figure portrayed in a crucification scene.

Late in the afternoon we arrived in the industrial town of Bastia. This is the largest port close to Italy and the main ferry connection with the continent. It might have been the capitol of Corsica but Napoleon, who was born in Ajaccico, decreed that his home town would be the capitol.

We had a tour of the Bastia citadel which is now an excellent museum. But we wanted to get back to the B&B before dark so we bought some food at a grocery store to make a little supper at home. In the fog and rain we made our way back along the incredibly narrow donkey track they call a road here.

Sharon has done most of the driving on this trip while I navigate and cling to the door handle. She has done an excellent job keeping the rental car free of dings and keeping us from flying off a cliff.

Tomorrow we are going to a food festival. Food has been a main theme of our visit to Corsica so it makes sense to keep it going.