Fit for an EMPEROR
Located between France and Italy, Napoleon’s birthplace of Corsica has inherited the best of both
THAT’S it then, the end of France. Though not necessarily France as we know it, given that the people and places all have Italian sounding names, and ‘the French’ are often referred to as a separate species (occasionally with a note of disdain).
I’m gazing out from the pictureperfect hilltop town of Bonifacio at the very bottom of Corsica, the most southerly town in France, on to a glistening white finger of limestone cliffs poking purposefully at Sardinia. The Italian island is visible just seven miles away.
Somehow Bonifacio hasn’t managed to fulfil its pre-ordained purpose as a Game of Thrones location. Perched precariously atop a rocky plug, its warren of ancient streets and bustling squares, wrapped in gently wafting warm winds, hints at corsairs and legionnaires (the foreign legion had a base here until 1995, sieges and kidnaps mired in medieval daring-do.
Over dinner in one of Bonifacio’s longest established restaurants, Stella D’Oro, now into its fourth generation of family ownership, it’s clear that local people remain woven into the unfolding fabric of their relentlessly pretty town.
The animated family group on a nearby table seem to transcend merely ‘local’ though and have gone for the full-on Corleone kidnapper look.
DARTING looks had me concerned that my potential could be being evaluated, but they seemed to realise nobody would pay the ransom. My attentions were allowed to re-focus on the most delicious sea bass I’ve dealt with in a good while.
Corsica remains something of a Mediterranean enigma that the French have managed to successfully keep, in large part, to themselves. The island, an eighth of the size of Ireland, with a long history of independence struggle against a neighbouring former imperial power and a zealously guarded local language, sounds like a destination an Irish visitor could feel at home in. But aside from the occasional Italian interjection, surrounding voices are resolutely French in all directions.
The landscape appears more rugged and uncompromising than Provence, which is precisely how its inhabitants have often been described. Corsicans disport something of a tough, hardheaded, down-to-earth image to the mainland French; pretty much the same way neighbouring Sardinians are sometimes caricatured by Italians. Reality lies somewhere in between.
Much of the country blanketed in maquis, an aromatic mixture incorporating rosemary, eucalyptus, myrtle, heather and lavender. Napoleon, the island’s most famous son, would apparently dream of the soft scent while exiled in St Helena. He’d given up on dreaming about Josephine by then, obviously.
It’s impossible to move too far around Corsica without coming across the vertically challenged scourge of early 19th century Europe. From is Napoleon Bonaparte Airport to beer mats and souvenirs, the famous face is everywhere.
Ajaccio, the island’s picturesque capital has a permanent queue outside the house of his birth, but he isn’t as well regarded in Corsica as one might assume.
Having embraced Corsican nationalism, he quickly became embroiled in revolutionary France, and the rest is one of the most dissected episodes in history. Whatever one’s perception of the man who helped depose a monarchy only to declare himself emperor, in Corsica he’s viewed more as an opportunist who deserted, even disrupted, the nationalist cause.
Tourism on the island seems almost deliberately under-developed: a lazy lost little outpost of French vacation heaven, languishing in elongated summers and the bucolic embrace of gallic gastronomy or simply bumbling about on the beach.
Corsica can be catnip to Instagram junkies. Maquis-covered hills enveloping hidden bays of breath-taking beauty and a backdrop of cobalt skies, lurk around every corner. And there’s no shortage of corners in a country composed of endless hills.
Thankfully there’s no shortage of enticing cafés and little familyrun restaurants perched on them either; sun-drenched bamboo covered terraces with garrulous gossiping old men down one end and a cat splayed out in the heat like a rug down the other.
AGREAT area for those who like to do a bit of travelling behind the wheel, Corsica is something of a hiker’s paradise too, with almost half of the island designated as a national park.
On a languid afternoon down in the island’s south-west corner, where some of the most spectacular beaches lie, the French are quietly busy doing what the French do best: lunch.
On the terrace of Le Cabanon Bleu restaurant (lecabanonbleu.
com), right next to a gently lapping crystal-clear sea glinting softly in a sultry September sun, it’s a full house. If you thought that somewhere forged in the cultural crucibles of both France and Italy, might be a place where dining could be rather good, you’d be rather right. If you’ve a penchant for seafood, even better. Spiny lobster and locally caught octopus or langoustines often cooked with spaghetti or linguine feature prominently.
Yachts, though not of the ‘super’ variety, bob lazily a little way off the beach, as the restaurant’s dinghy ferries their occupants back and forth. Corsica gets its fair share of celebrity incursions and Leonardo DiCaprio was recently spotted here on a yacht, but in the main it’s all relatively laid-back, and unpretentious.
Many of the hotel options on Corsica are boutique or familyrun, and around the headland near the town of Porto Vecchio, La Plage Casadelmar (casadelmar.fr) presents as one of the most alluring. Just 15 rooms and suites hidden away in an understated achingly chic beachside retreat, a hedonistic sun-kissed sanctuary as covetable as anywhere in the Mediterranean.
The hotel dinghy also transports guests across the bay to its bigger sister hotel, Casadelmar. It has the only two Michelin-starred restaurant on the island, where Cristiano Ronaldo was spotted this summer. Surrendering your taste buds to ultra-talented Italian chef de cuisine Fabio Bragagnolo is an experience to savour.
Corsica still lacks a direct aviation link with Ireland and so requires added effort to get to, in comparison to more familiar southern sunspots. But at the end of France, where summer comes sooner and can linger for longer, that effort is amply rewarded.
TRAVEL FACTS
Air Corsica celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and has ample flights to Corsica from many major British airports, visit aircorsica.com