The Corsican Connection - Part 2
On September 29th, we relocated to an apartment one kilometer away in a gorgeous hotel complex/garden oasis so we could enjoy a second week in Calvi visiting with the Delaras.
On October 1st, we caught a clickety-clackety little train to L'Île-Rousse, 45-minutes northeast of Calvi.
Below are photos of the narrow gauge tracks and the view from the train stop where we hopped on and off. The water was a pretty blue that day. We ate sandwiches on a park bench and then strolled the streets. Turns out we stumbled upon a street fair with carnival rides, artisan booths, and a pétanque tournament. Up one of the streets, we caught a mouth-watering whiff of freshly-made cookies - well, no wonder, the cookies were stacked on cooling racks with several fans blowing on them. Also note the difference in language between Corsica, France, and Italy: Bonghjornu vs Bonjour vs Buongiorno
This is what Pétanque sounds like:
The next day, Jimmy took us around to a few other nearby small towns: Pigna, Lumio, Corbara, and finally Algajola where we had a delicious pizza lunch. Corsicans enjoy singing, which is why I had to capture that snippet of "urban art," but I also enjoyed the mural in Algajola of a net maker, and in Lumio of Saint Anthony and his pig (hidden behind the parked car). Also, I am baffled by how self-cleaning public toilets can be found all over France, even in Lumio (population ~1,200) .... but not in Seattle.
That evening, when we pulled into Calvi, the rally cars started to arrive for their big event, so naturally, we had to check those out too. You may have seen Steve's photos already, but here's what I saw: a Citroen towing a Citroen, I think that's a Corsican separatist cartoon figure dressed like the Michelin Man, a rainbow, that Citroen that towed the other one had toy Citroens inside its headlights, and Steve and Jimmy exchanging commentary and trivia every few feet.
On October 4th, Jimmy and Kirsten took us and their friend Prim to another one of their favorite secret beaches. This one involved a trek through some dense vegetation alongside a lazy river. The sea was warm and shallow and clear as can be. We floated until it was time for a picnic lunch on some drift wood.
We had a few more lazy days and dinners on their patio before we needed to make our way north to scout for where we might want to move.
But first, a four-day pit stop in Lyon, which you'll read about in the next post . . .
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