Corsica: There and Back

We were keen to visit a few Mediterranean Islands but realised that the time we had left in Europe made this impossible. So, with the time to visit just one island, Corsica, a French island, was the obvious choice.

Corsica is known for its beauty and as the birthplace of Napoleon. The population is 320,000 and island, situated in the Mediterranean, south east of France, west of Italy with Sardinia (Italian) 11 kms to the south. It is a mountainous island.

After reading that the average speed capacity on the island was 40 km per hour (I interpreted this as steep, curvy, dangerous roads) we decided to spend a couple of days in one town, Bastia which is north on the east coast.

The first leg of our trip to Corsica was by train to Marseilles. This was quite a scenic trip. We waited in the new harbour area until evening. We didn't see much of Marseilles and agreed that Alex was probably right about the town; we felt less secure here than anywhere else in our travels.

We then took an overnight ferry to Corsica. It reminded us of our Greek island hopping experiences in the 1980’s although this time we had a cabin and didn’t have to sleep on the desk smelling the diesel exhaust all night. The ferry trip was very beautiful and we saw

much of the French and Italian coastline.

The return trip was much the same. We left at sunset and had beautiful views of the old town and harbour.

Next: Bastia, Corsica