Corsicans are very friendly. We found this during our entire trip, with a single exception in a remote mountain village where people seemed to be rather cool. But the village was so small they didn't even have a pub so what do you expect? Folks are very polite and a bit formal when you meet them on the street, always greeting us with, "Bonjour madame, monsieur". The Corsicans speak a very nice French - not too fast and not too fancy. And they have their own language, Corsu. But today very few speak Corsu as their mother tongue.
The drivers tend to be good - "precise", Sharon says. They have to be good to keep their cars on the road on narrow mountain tracks. Driving along you see that place names are written in French and Corsu but the French words are almost always spray painted out - a Corsican independence thing. For some reason Corsicans use road signs for target practice. But there's no discrimination here - both French and Corsican words are equally shot up.
The Siesta is commonly practiced in Corsica. In most towns and villages virtually all stores are closed between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. Exception: bars. We had to get used to remembering to buy our picnics before noon.
Dogs roam free and are very friendly. Many assume the duty of guarding the village - inspecting and approving each stranger that arrives. We watched one greet every single person who descended from a tour bus. A number of dogs accompanied us on walks and seemed to guide us. They wander in the middle of the road oblivious to traffic. And there is a Corsican breed of dog, the Cursinu. We met a number of these very gentle medium-sized dogs.
Farm animals roam free too. We encountered pigs, sheep, goats and cows - frequently, and sometimes in the narrowest mountain roads. We were told that in the old days pigs and cows were in proper fields and shepherds tended the sheep and goats. But today there's no one willing to put that much effort in to keeping animals so they just run wild. It's very Corsican. Then there's the famous giant wild boar or "sanglier" which, luckily we didn't encounter, although we ate some!
I love the stone architecture here. It grows right out of the ground and lasts for centuries - even millennia. And it's a land of stone churches but today most of them stand idle and locked. There just aren't enough praticing Catholics anymore to support them. It's a shame if they fall into disrepair, as many already have, as the church is the centerpiece of every villages and many are very beautiful. Although we were in Corsica for the Easter weekend, there was no sign of Easter at all except that the shops were closed on Easter Sunday and Monday.
It's a land of sparkling mountain streams with delicious drinking water spouting from fountains and springs all over the island. And to see the fountains and springs, forests and beaches, there's an incredible system of hiking trails from coast to coast and the mountains in between. We only sampled a small part of it.
In Corsica, we had excellent food at restaurants and B&B, alike. The Corsicans have a huge number of traditional dishes and we got to try many of them. There's a high level of "gastronomy" here which makes us think that the Corsicans combine the best traits of the French and Italians. One Corsican agreed that they are better than both the French and Italians.
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