We had a weather shortened day. We forgot about daylight savings time, and did not realize until this morning that it had happened yesterday here, of course we were not late for anything because most days we don’t have to worry about being anywhere at a certain time.
The sea was pretty active today, and the wind was whipping along at a good clip.
Our first stop for the day was a LeClerc to stock up on some food, and to pick up some Corsican things we have grown to appreciate that we probably will not be able to get once we head back to the mainland on Tuesday. This was a huge LeClerc so Ton enjoyed herself window shopping as well as filling the basket.
An old wall that must have been attached to a bigger building at some time.
We were planning to visit a town called Saint Florent which is on the other side of Cap Corse, but when we came out of LeClerc the wind had really picked up, and the mountains we were going to have to cross to get to Saint Florent looked socked in, so we decided to go up the side of Cap Corse we were on to our campground for the day. On the way we stopped in Erbalunga which is a cute town.
Looking back at Bastia from Erbalunga. It was not a day to be at sea for the faint hearted.
Erbalunga is a quick stop, but we enjoyed watching the ocean putting on a show. Ton remembered she needed to some onions so we popped into a little neighborhood market which was doing a thriving business, and then headed to our campground for the day. We are parked in a big open field with about 5 other RV’s. It is a really nice campground with great facilities. When we arrived there was a sign that said go pick a spot and come back at 6pm to pay. When I went by at 6 pm no one was there, so maybe tomorrow morning.
The beach at Pietracorbara.
The wind really howled most of the afternoon, frequently giving François a good shake. But towards sunset it died down completely, and now all we can hear is the surf about a quarter mile away. Another front is supposed to come thru tomorrow just in time for our departure on the ferry.
Today we visited the second largest city on Corsica. Bastia was founded around 1370 as a Citadel guarding a port that Genoa was trying to use to rule Corsica. Over time it became the primary port for Northern Corsica and today is the primary ferry port to connect to mainland France and northern Italy, we will be departing from here on Tuesday. Italy is closer to Corsica than France is, and there are two prominent islands off shore that are part of Italy, one of which is Elba where Napoleon lived in exile until his death.
The citadel overlooking the main harbor in Bastia.
Corsica has always been a tough place to govern. All of the major cities are fortress towns where the off island rulers (Genoa, and France) have tried with mixed success to control the interior of the island. The extreme ruggedness of the center of the island makes it a rebels paradise. Even today as we were driving into Bastia, most of the highway overpasses and bridges had “Corsica is not French” spray painted on them, so even today there is a Corsican independence movement.
Historically these are a tough people to govern, but look like a fun group to hang out with.
We accomplished another thing today as we decided to park at the ferry terminal for the day, so our trip in to catch the ferry on Tuesday will now be a little easier as we know the route and the layout of the terminal. As we walked into the town center we came across a sprawling Sunday market on the main square of the city.
The Sunday flea market.
The largest part of the market was a huge flea market. While interesting for people watching, other peoples junk is generally not our thing. So we passed thru pretty quickly.
This is a dish we have seen throughout Corsica, it is cheese mixed with a little dough to make a kind of pancake. We tried one and it was interesting, and while very popular with the local crowd we won’t be buying it again.
We kept on thru the center of the city and next found ourselves at the harbor. The harbor was where all of the high end restaurants were located. We did some window shopping, but in the end decided to have a home cooked lunch today.
Looking across at the mountains that are right behind the city. The mountain with the towers on the left side of the picture is 2700 feet to give you a feel for how steep the land rises behind the city.
Our last stop for the day was the citadel built above the harbor to protect it. The citadel was a good climb up, and as we were walking up it I saw a sign saying that one of the problems that Bastia has always had to deal with is connecting the citadel above the town with the harbor. Today the answer appeared to be that the lower town and the harbor are the center of the town, and the citadel is very quiet.
This is the main square of the citadel. For about 15 minutes Ton and I had it to ourselves.
The lower town was very lively, the market was busy, and the restaurants were full. When we got to the citadel it was mostly empty, and except for one restaurant all of the businesses were closed. It was quite a contrast.
Usually Ton has to wait for people to clear out for her picture. In the citadelshe was happy to find someone to put in the picture.
We wandered about for a few more minutes looking at signs describing the buildings, for the first time today we heard languages besides French. Our conclusion was that the citadel was for tourists and since the season is over all of the businesses have packed up. So we headed back to François and out to our campsite for the day.
We ran into this priest on a motorcycle on one of the back alleys of the citadel.
On the way to the campground we wanted to swing into a grocery store to pick up a few supplies. Unfortunately, all of the parking lots at the major grocery chains we saw had height barriers. This is a uniquely annoying French thing where they put gates at about 2.6 meters above ground to keep oversized vehicles out of parking lots. Sometimes you can find a back entrance, or a secondary lot that is not restricted, but today I didn’t want to go on the search, so we decided to keep our money to ourselves.
Ton liked the concave wall on this apartment building.
Today we shifted to the other side of the island to Cap Corse. If you look at a map of Corsica you will see a panhandle sticking out of the northern part of the island. That is the Cap Corse.
The drive over was thru the mountainous center of the island.
We headed out pretty early as we have learned that Corsican roads are twisty and hilly things that require some time to negotiate. Todays road was pretty straight by Corsican standards so we beat my estimated time by nearly 30 minutes.
Today is the final of the Rugby World Cup, and apparently the fans of France are favoring South Africa over New Zealand.
We followed the east coast of the cape for about 20 kilometers after leaving the largest city on the island Bastia. I was expecting something like our drive down the D81 but it was completely different. Much of the coast line here is developed and we were more impressed with the beautiful homes than the coast. The coast line was impressive but after a week on Corsica our standard for a spectacular coast line has gotten quite high.
This old fort is overlooking our campground.
We had a quiet afternoon relaxing and conversing with our Dutch neighbor whose 3 year old took a shine to me and was teaching me Dutch so I would play with him. Later in the day we headed down to the beach. During the afternoon we had heard a few gun shots in the vicinity of the campground. On the trail to the beach we came across a gentlemen in hunting gear and carrying a double barrel shotgun. I got his attention and asked him in my best French c’est Securite, pointing down the trail. He gave me a big thumbs up and replied Oui c’est bon. So we hustled down the trail to the beach.
A beach club closed up for the winter, though some of the locals were using the lounge chairs for a meal.
We took a quick walk along the beach as the wind was up and it was getting chilly. There were a fair amount of locals around, all bundled up also. There was a dark cloud coming over the hill, and after the downpours of the last few days we didn’t want to get caught out so we headed back to François for the evening.
After our short train ride into Calvi yesterday, we decided to head the other direction to the opposite end of the line to the town of Lisula. On the maps the town is labeled by its French name of L’Île-Rousse, but given its history and our observation of the preferred name in the town we decided to go with the Corsican name.
About the only place we saw the French name for the town in Lisula was on the train station.
The town was founded as a port by the Corsican separatist Pasquale Paoli in 1758. It was put on a point of land that allowed the Corsicans to cut the flow of goods between Genoa and Calvi during the rebellion that was going on at that time. The rebellion was successful for a short period of time and Corsica became an independent country for a few years, before Genoa sold the rights to the island to the French and it was occupied by them in 1768. So in this area there is an ongoing rivalry between Calvi and Lisula going back to the 1760s.
Part of the old fort on the left behind the evening Pétanque match. The island in the background is what gives the city its name.
The wind has been howling since last night and when we arrived we decided to head out to the island first. The walk across the causeway was pretty intense as a couple of gusts of wind actually staggered us. The high wind was a constant companion all day, even at lunch when one gust blew thru the covered seating area we were in and knocked over chairs, signs, and blew glasses off of tables. Ton and I both showed good reflexes to grab our wine glasses before they blew over.
Looking back at town. Like every town we have been to in Corsica there are mountains within a mile or so of the coast.
When we walked into town we saw a bunch of tents set up and a lot of people on bicycles. It turns out that the town is hosting the Corsica Bike Festival this weekend. So in addition to enjoying the pretty waterfront we were entertained by different bicycle events and displays.
These stairs are part of a race course set up thru town.
One of the events is an urban race course that runs thru the streets and alleys of the town. The surface is cobblestone mostly and at one point it runs down a set of stairs near the town hall. We watched one race and it looked pretty challenging as they had to navigate tight corners and run up narrow alleys, all the while dealing with changing surfaces and curbs.
Racers making a turn around the town market building.
We enjoyed our stay at Lisula enough to extend to a later train back. Our old train was packed with people returning to Calvi after a day outing to its rival Lisula. The coast line here is also stunning and we really enjoyed looking out the window of the train at the cliffs, beaches and inlets as we headed back to François. Corsica as a destination is a beach bums dream.
We arrived back at our campground in Calvi near sunset.
We finally got our chance to go to Calvi today. After a day and a half stuck in François while a huge storm passed thru, we were anxious to get going. So at 9:40 we were at the train stop.
The 9:40 train to Calvi. In a country of ultra sleek and very high speed electric trains, this was a boxy, diesel from the 60’s.
10 minutes after boarding we were deposited at the foot of the citadel that is the main attraction for Calvi. Most of the tourist oriented places were closed as we walked up to the citadel. The citadel is impressive, built out on a point of land guarding the harbor. It really looks like an Americans vision of an European castle/fort.
Part of the fortress walls. You can get a sense of the scale by looking at the people on top.
As we walked into town two things made me connect to Calvi immediately. The first was the cities motto carved into the main entry to the citadel in Latin, “Civitas Calvi Semper Fidelis” The city of Calvi is always faithful. Semper Fidelis is also the motto of the Marine Corps. The second thing I saw was on one of the old fort buildings was a sign that said it was the officers club of the 2nd Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment who are based here. I worked with one of the officers from the 2e REP (as it is abbreviated in French) during my brief time in Lebanon, the only time I worked with the French Army.
Calvi shares the same motto as the US Marine Corps.
We walked around the citadel for about an hour enjoying the views and admiring the fort.
Some of the buildings and walls of the fortress.
Calvi makes a claim to be the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. The locals admit that there is no evidence to support this claim, just local stories passed down over generations that he was born to a fisherman from Calvi. But when he went to get help from the Spanish for his voyages he couldn’t admit he was from Corsica because the Corsicans had a bad habit of slaughtering Spanish soldiers and sailors who came by. So instead he said he was from Genoa who were the rulers of Corsica at the time. Research on the internet allows for some doubt about Columbus true birth place, most scholars say Genoa, but others say he was Greek and a few say he was a Pole, but no one but people from Calvi say he was Corsican.
Even if Columbus wasn’t from Calvi, it is a beautiful city. The citadel is on the right.
After our tour thru the citadel we went into the new town and explored the marina and did some shopping at a SuperU grocery. We learned that the same train that we took to Calvi, goes to two other towns that are on our list to visit while we are here, so we will be taking the same vintage train in the opposite direction tomorrow.
Ton liked this painting from the cathedral inside the citadel.
Our last stop for the day was at a microbrewery near the campground. It looked promising. The set up was much like we are used to in Portland with a chalkboard of todays beer offerings. We ordered a couple of beers and asked about food, the only thing they had was some dips made from olives, eggplant and tomatoes and bread so that is what we ordered. After our order arrived we were then ignored and eventually abandoned. When we were ready to leave Ton finally went and knocked on the window to the back room to get somebody to come out and take our money. It was a strange visit, the beer was fair.
The artwork for the brewery was very well done, we really liked this poster.
The picture at the top is Calvi taken from the train stop near the campground. We almost got there today, but ended up staying buttoned up in François all day. The bad weather from yesterday cleared up for a few hours last night so we planned to head into town about 11:30. But just as we got to the train station it started raining again in buckets so we scampered back to François.
A picture of François during one of the breaks from the rain. It has been raining a lot!
We decided to take a day off and take advantage of the good internet here to stream some movies and relax. I did a little work on the blog adding a page for Sardinia, and updating Sicily, but otherwise we did not accomplish much.
Ton and I have had the privilege of driving some beautiful highways in our time traveling, the Alaska Highway, Utah Highway 12, the Pacific Coast Highway, the Amalfi Coast, and today we added another beautiful and memorable highway to the list, the D81 between Sagone and Osage on Corsica.
Some of the mountain scenery at the beginning of the drive.
Our thought was to move up to Calvi today. It is the next major town north of us and somewhere we planned to spend a day during our visit to Corsica. I had looked at a map and I remember telling Ton that it was not going to be a quick trip as the road looked very curvy, and mountainous. I punched Calvi into Greta our navigator, and she first reported that it was 47 kilometers north of us by air, she then calculated the route and said it was 118 kilometers of road. That is a lot of curves.
The road we followed to get to this point is in the center of the picture. The scenery is incredible, and the road is a roller coaster.
I checked the weather and it was not good. It was supposed to rain most of the day, so in addition to the mountains and curves we were going to have wet roads. We had a short debate about whether to stay put for the day, but while the campground was nice the only entertainment around it was a very nice grocery store next door, so we decided to move on.
This would not be our only goat encounter of the drive.
Just as we were pulling out of the parking lot of the supermarket there were a couple of thunderclaps and the moderate rain we had been experiencing turned into a full on downpour. Ton asked if we should abort the drive, but I decided to push on.
This view is incredible in the rain. I can’t imagine what it is like on a sunny day.
For the first 45 minutes of the drive the windshield wipers were on high to handle the volume of rain. We had to keep our eyes out for water running across the road and deep puddles. Fortunately the traffic was pretty light, and we did not realize it at the time but this was the wide and straight part of the drive.
Approaching a small town on the route. There was a decent sized town every 10 kilometers or so.
After about 45 minutes the rain let up and then eventually stopped just as we were reaching the area around the town of Piana. The timing it turns out couldn’t have been better as we were reaching the Calanques de Piana. We passed thru Piana which was the largest town we had seen so far on the trip. There were several substantial hotels in the town and the views from the town were great including some red rocks in the distance.
Some of the Calanques with the road carved into the side of them
A couple of kilometers outside of the town we came to a sign in French which said approximately, the road is very narrow, there will be places to pull out so when you run into another car, work it out. Or words to that effect. We were entering the Calanques de Piana.
I’m in the pull out on the right as this car went by.
But what a magnificent stretch of road. The road is carved thru these amazing red rocks that reminded me a bit of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. There were hair pin turns to negotiate while you were peering around the corner to see if anyone else was coming, and simultaneously gawking at another beautiful vista.
This guy gave way to allow me to squeeze around the corner, while giving me a hand signal telling me no one was coming.
Once going around one of the corners I ran into a tour bus coming the other way. We both stopped and checked our mirrors and I was planning to back up about 50 yards to a pullout, but before I could get into reverse he gave me a hand signal to wait and he threw the bus in reverse and backed into a small pull out part way to give me enough room to squeeze thru. Over the 10 kilometers or so of the narrow part of the road I came across 5 vehicles, 3 times the other person backed up to make enough room, and twice I did. Often you would see another car coming and we would park in a pull out and wait for them to go by. As the sign said use the pull outs and work it out amongst yourselves.
Not only did you have to deal with cars on the narrow road, but four legged traffic.
Not only do you have the red rocks but you can see the ocean from the road. This stretch of road is absolutely one of the most beautiful we have ever seen. When we set out in the morning we had no idea we were going to have one of the most memorable drives of our life. Today is the reason why we enjoy traveling in our little RV’s. We would have never experienced the D81 and the Calanques de Piana.
Even the goats used the pullouts to allow traffic to flow.
We left the campground at 9:45 and arrived at our campground in Calvi at about 1:15, so our 118 kilometer drive took three and half hours for an average speed of 33 kph or 20 miles per hour. It was not a fast trip but we enjoyed it immensely. Right as we got settled into the campground the sky opened up again and we spent the rest of the day watching the rain pour down with high winds and the occasional thunderclap. It was a memorable day.
We woke up early as we were both a little nervous about the Controle Technique that François had to undergo. The Controle Technique is an inspection that every motor vehicle in France has to go thru every two years. There are 136 points of inspection and if you fail you have to find a mechanic to fix the issue and bring it back in to have it reinspected. We were also worried because our inspection was due in August, but we were in the US and François was in Greece, so we did not know if we were subject to any penalty for being late.
All of the things that are checked in the inspection.
If the timing was better and we knew a mechanic in town we would have arranged to have someone go over François before we went in for the inspection. I took a look at the list of 136 things, and while some of them were easy to understand such as are all of the lights working, is the windshield intact, are the tires in good condition etc. Some were pretty obscure, and some require a diagnostic computer. So after talking it over we decided to just go in and get the inspection and see what happens.
Arriving at the building. We were nervous.
The other concern I had was if something was wrong would I be able to communicate effectively with the technician to understand the issue. Google translate is pretty good, but sometimes for technical issues things are not that clear. When we arrived we were both pretty nervous, but the guys in the office and the other customers put as at ease by treating us as an interesting twist to their day and having fun with it. I surrendered our registration document to the technician and he immediately got a giggle out of the name of the “company” François the motorhome is registered to which is Corbin Voyage. He showed it to a couple of the other customers who smiled and one of them gave me a thumbs up.
François going thru the third and final station of the inspection.
The tech finally asked for the keys and drove François into the bay for the first station of the inspection. Ton and I were at the window looking into the shop like two parents watching their child trying out for a team. We watched the monitors, and tried to guess from the reaction of the tech if he was doing good. After about 20 minutes of nervous observation interspersed with being teased by an older gentleman who was there getting his Smart car tested. The tech drove François out and came into the waiting area and announced that our score was perfect! Though I did see him shoot some air into one of the tires, so it wasn’t quite perfect. There also wasn’t a fine for being three months late getting the inspection. We were very proud of François and celebrated by going to a LeClerc and buying some French goodies that we both have missed since our last foray here.
The direction signs for our campground. These are all towns in Corsica.
I had picked out the closest campground North of Ajaccio that was still open. It was only 38 kilometers, but we are learning that the coastline of Corsica is very rugged and the roads are full of hairpin turns as a result. Between some traffic in Ajaccio and the hairpin roads it took us nearly an hour to cover those 38 kilometers. As a result we arrived 10 minutes after the campground office had shutdown for their two hour lunch break. I may have muttered a curse word when I realized we were going to have to park and wait two hours, when I heard a voice behind me ask if I spoke English, she then said she was going to open the gate and let us in, and that I should then come back at 2pm and check in.
A flower near the entrance to the campground. Ton doesn’t know the variety but she really likes it.
We set up François, and Ton whipped up a wonderful lunch. It was our first food of the day, which probably contributed to the high bill and the amount of deserts we had bought from our pass thru LeClerc. All in all a good day.
The campground has an orange grove. Ton was ready to go in and start picking when I showed her the sign that said no entry.
The day got off to a good start as when I woke up Ton looked at me and said we should wash some clothes while we are here. She then sent me out to look for a laundromat. I scouted the main road in front of the hotel, and just as I was about to give up, I spotted a laundromat in a little strip mall walking distance from the hotel. So we gathered up our laundry in François and by 10 am had our laundry done. To celebrate our logistical victory we stopped in a Boulangerie and bought a nice French breakfast.
A statue depicting Napoleon Bonaparte as a Roman emperor near the waterfront in Ajaccio.
Ajaccio is the birthplace of Napoleon and his name shows up on many of the buildings, streets, and businesses in downtown Ajaccio. We spent a good part of the day walking from one memorial to Napoleon to another and finally to the street where he was born and raised. He last visited his boyhood home in 1799 and never returned as he became Emperor of the French and then went into exile after he was defeated at Waterloo.
The street that Napoleon grew up on. The large building with the security guard in the door is his boyhood home, and now a National Monument of France.
Beside being the birthplace of one of the most famous Frenchman ever, Ajaccio is also the capital of Corsica. But it is a nice compact city that is easy to move around in. The city is surrounded by mountains in 3 directions and the ocean in the fourth. It is a beautiful setting for a city.
Looking across the harbor at the mountains in the background that we drove over yesterday.
Sundays are usually pretty low key in France, but the waterfront in Ajaccio was humming and the unseasonably warm weather had all of the cafes full. We enjoyed walking around and noticed that for the first time in a long time we heard nothing but the native language of the town being spoken. We can’t remember the last time we went a whole day without hearing either English or German being spoken by a significant percentage of the people. There were so few tourists around that all of the people we needed to talk to just assumed we were French until we proved otherwise. It was fun.
One of the more interesting groups hanging out today was the Corsican Motorcycle Club. A lot of Harleys and the leather vests we see on all of the Harley clubs in the US. The biggest difference we noticed as while there was some Budweiser on the table, most of the members were drinking wine.
We noticed that the market was open, so we made a bee line for it as most things grocery related shutdown around 1 pm. The market is always a happy place for Ton. This was a good one with a great variety of foods.
Part of the market in Ajaccio.
The food looked a lot like what we saw in Sardinia. Great looking seafood, a lot of smoked meats, and cheese primarily made from sheep. There were vegetables and fruit available, and while nice were not up to the quality and variety we saw in Sicily.
A selection of different salamis and ham. Ton was very tempted but we need to eat some of the stuff we brought from Sardinia before indulging here.
Ajaccio was a great introduction to Corsica. The natural setting of the town is beautiful, the people looked happy and prosperous, and the food looks like it is going to be a treat. Even the Corsican beer we tried at one of the cafes was a cut above anything we have had since we left Belgium. We are excited to begin digging in to Corsica tomorrow after we take care of our technical inspection and make François legal to drive again in France.
Another view of the harbor and mountains surrounding Ajaccio.
Well today is going to be a short one. We woke up early after a night of steady rain. We wanted to get on the road pretty early as we were paying for a hotel room we were not using in Ajaccio.
The drive over from Porto Vecchio to Ajaccio was only 150 kilometers, but I noticed that google had it pegged at 2 hours and 40 minutes, and they base it on driving a car at the speed limit. I told Ton it looked like it was going to be a tough drive thru the mountains. The roads themselves were in good shape but it was mountain driving with multiple switchbacks and steep slopes that frequently had me down to 3rd gear. On top of that it was raining most of the way, so we took about 3 and a half hours to cover the distance. Our first impression is that Corsica is much more rugged than Sardinia was.
The desert menu for today.
Next to our hotel is a Buffalo Grill. This restaurant chain is very popular in France. We have seen them in almost every large town and city here and I have told Ton we should try it to get the French take on an American steakhouse. While we were eating Ton googled the company and found out there are over 300 Buffalo Grills in France, plus a few in Spain and Switzerland. I had a hamburger and Ton had a pepper steak and we were both pleased. It is a lot like a Sizzler or a Applebees, but red wine costs the same as a coke.
Our American meal at Buffalo Grill.
One of the stereotypes of the French is that they hate all things American. But, our personal observations are different than that. We see more American themed things here than in any other country in Europe. In addition to the Buffalo Grill, there are more McDonalds, Burger Kinds and KFC’s in France than any other country in Europe, so while they might not like the best of American food, they don’t seem to have any problem embracing some parts of our food culture. Several times we have come across clubs of French with vintage US cars, police cars, or military equipment, with some of the club members even dressed as American police officers or soldiers. I mention this because we do not see the amount of Americana in other countries as we do in France. Except McDonalds, they are everywhere.
The outside of the Buffalo Grill, you see them all over France.
I think some of the issue is that the French are just not very good English speakers, just as we are not very good French speakers. Because of that the communication breaks down. When you can break thru the language barriers the French are just as charming as any other people we have met in Europe. It just tends to be harder than with other European to break thru the language barrier.
We left Italy and Sardinia today for France and the island of Corsica. This involved another ferry crossing. This one also turned into a bit of an adventure. The weather has been unsettled the last few days, very windy with occasional showers and then clear skies. The wind has also been very warm. Our friend Ovi says that this weather pattern is common in the fall in the Mediterranean and is called a Libeccio.
We had a mild panic yesterday evening when we received an email from the ferry line saying our crossing was cancelled due to weather. We had booked a hotel in Ajaccio for the weekend, because we are going to get François’ Controlé Technique ( safety inspection for all French vehicles) done there on Monday. We needed to get to Corsica as our hotel was non-refundable and we want to get the inspection out of the way so that we are legal to drive in France. When I went to book the inspection the only time left for the week is 9am on Monday.
The email from the ferry had a link to book other options. The link recommended a crossing leaving for Corsica from the same port on Sardinia but leaving 2 hours earlier than our original booking. When I looked it was the same ship. I clicked that I would take it, and they transferred our original appointment to the new sailing time and even automatically assigned us to the same room we had on our original sailing. I thought that it was a weird way to tell us the ship was leaving two hours earlier than before. But the devil is in the details.
We still had plenty of time in the morning to pack up, fill François with LP gas, and diesel and head over to the port unrushed. We arrived and there was no ship in port, but there were cars and motorhomes parked about waiting.
François waiting in line to board the ferry.
When we received our boarding paper, I noticed that the port on the paperwork did not say Ajaccio, but Porto Vecchio. I told the guy from the ferry that we were going to Corsica he said yes Porto Vecchio Corsica. Remember I said the devil is in the details. So I quickly googled Porto Vecchio and saw that is was 140 kilometers from Ajaccio on the other side of the island.
I then noticed we were put in a separate line with about 20 cars while the other motorhomes were put in a separate line with all of the other cars. I thought all of the other vehicles were going to Ajaccio and we somehow had been assigned to the wrong port. So off I went with my phone in hand only to be told that all of those people were going to Toulon after they dropped us in Corsica.
The storm did give us a nice sunset to enjoy as we drove thru Porto Vecchio.
The reason we changed ports was because the storm over the past few days had raised the sea state to a point where the ferry line decided to go to the east side of Corsica instead of the west side as originally planned for safety reasons. So right at sunset we arrived in Porto Vecchio, I found a scruffy looking campground near the town as I have a pretty strict no night time driving rule. Tomorrow we will drive over to Ajaccio and claim our hotel room.
We had visited Strasbourg on a previous trip and had really enjoyed it despite the weather being really poor. We decided to give it another look today despite the weather forecast calling for rain.
A statue to Guttenberg the inventor of the printing press. The inscription on the book he is carrying says “And there was light”.
We woke up a little late to some rain tapping on the roof of François, and by the time we got organized to leave it was 10:00. The drive to Strasbourg was 400km’s (about 250 miles) but the road was largely good without too many small villages to slow us down so we made good time and arrived at the campground in the city about 2:30. We were a little surprised to end up in the overflow parking for the night as the main campground was full. As we were having a late lunch Ton and I were entertained by watching a Dutch couple shift their motorhome from spot to spot around the overflow trying to get their satellite dish to work. By the time we left for town they still had not found a spot where they could connect.
Three of the canals in Strasbourg merging. The towers were part of the original fortification system for the town.
The walk to town was about a mile and a half along a nice canal. The old part of Strasbourg is built on an island in the middle of I’ILL River with several canals splitting the island on one end. It is very picturesque. It also has a beautiful collection of half timbered homes.
Some of the half timbered homes along the bank of the I’ILL River.
The cathedral is very elaborate, and one of the larger ones we have seen. While we were walking around it the bells were sounding for quite an extended period of time. In fact they were going for so long that Ton thought it might have been a recording and not the actual bells.
The main entrance to the Cathedral in Strasbourg.
We spent quite a while walking around downtown enjoying the sites and watching the people, which is always fun. Strasbourg is the major city in Alsace and this region has always been a border region between Germany and France, and has changed hands multiple times in the last 300 years ago. It is an interesting mixture of German and French culture and food.
Ton really liked the cute animals representing the types of meat you could get in the butchers shop below.
After a couple of hours of walking around we decided it was time to head back to François for dinner. We got back just as the rain arrived so today turned out really well.
Every French city seems to have a carousel in the downtown. This one dated to 1904.
We also watched the Dutch couple move their motorhome one last time in an attempt to connect to the satellite. As we went to the shower we noticed their dish was locked up, and their TV was glowing inside so the 5th time was the charm for them.
We are still in Migenness waiting for our power cord to arrive and recovering from jet lag. Each trip it seems to take just a little bit longer to get over the jet lag. As much as we don’t want to admit it we are getting older.
Today will be short and sweet as we did not do much. I am still falling asleep early and waking up early and Ton is still falling asleep late and waking up late, though she did fess up to not wanting to get out of the warm bed delayed her getting up this morning. The temperatures have been in the high 40’s overnight gradually warming up to about 70 during the day, which is nice except François is a little cold in the mornings. While we are talking about the weather, it is going to put a crimp in our travels. Everywhere we want to visit between here in France and Zagreb in Croatia is supposed to have rain for the next ten days! We finally decided that we are Oregonians and a little rain is not going to hold us back.
We had a couple of short walks today, and that is about the extent of our activity so there is not much else to talk about. Hopefully the power cord will arrive tomorrow as promised by Amazon and we can get on our way.
There is not a lot to talk about today. Ton and I are both jet lagged but in different ways. I am falling asleep very early in the evening around 8 am and waking very early. Ton is having a hard time falling asleep and ended up waking about 10:30.
Since I was up early and didn’t want to bother Ton I went for a walk into town. It turned out it was market day. Ton usually loves these town markets so I thought I would go back to François and see if she wanted to go. She was still asleep so I went for another walk.
Later in the afternoon we both headed into town, but by then the market was closed, and you would not know it had been bustling with vendors in the morning, just a small cleaning crew putting the finishing touches on washing the floor.
We know we are back in France when we see our first Petanque game.
After a visit to the local Aldi to buy some more groceries we followed the canal the town is famous for and came across a group of seniors playing Petanque. Ton tried to take a stealth photo of the group but one gentleman saw her and began teasing her in a friendly way, until he realized she did not understand his French and it was all wasted on her, so he gave a big Gallic shrug and turned back to the game.
We ended our lazy day with a nice pasta meal, and an early bed time for me.
We have returned to the campground that we spent our last night in France in June. It is located pretty close to where we store François, and we really like the people. Our loyalty was more than paid back as you will read later.
This trip had a little more adventure to it than normal, but nothing too dramatic. We decided to try a slightly different route to Paris than in the past. We had been flying a shuttle to Seattle and taking a direct flight to Paris from Seattle. Portland has a direct flight to Amsterdam, and then you connect to Paris. Since it is still two legs we decided to try leaving from our hometown. Everything was on track until the Friday before we left we received an email from KLM saying they had canceled the flight from Amsterdam to Paris and we should contact Delta to get a new flight. I called Delta and the lady who answered said that KLM had not notified them that they had canceled the flight, I told her I had an email from KLM telling me, she asked if I could wait on hold while she called KLM to see what was going on. After about 30 minutes on hold she came back on the line and confirmed that the flight was canceled, and asked if we would mind being rebooked on Air France a couple of hours later, which was better than I expected. The slight delay however, meant though that we could not make it to Sens in time to pick up François, so we ended up in a hotel near the airport for the first night.
Then after we unpacked I realized I had left the power cord for Greta the Garmin at home in Oregon which is a huge problem because as much as I complain about her she is our second most important tool for getting around over here. We visited 5 stores in an attempt to find a replacement with no luck. Ton confirmed it was available on Amazon so as it was getting late we decided to try to figure out how to get an Amazon account set up in Europe and order one for delivery here. When we checked into the campground I explained our problem to Leo the campground manager, and he immediately volunteered to order one using his Amazon account. So our new power cable should be here on Saturday, and once again the wonderful people at Confluence Campground in Migennes have made us very happy.
The cover photo is a greatest hit picture not from Sens. Today was a simple drive up to Sens where we took care of a short list of shopping we wanted to do for some friends, washed François, and returned him to Eurocampingcars.
After that we hung around the hotel and had some Chinese for dinner. The last day is always kind of boring and a let down after having been on the move for a couple of months. But we are already looking forward to the next trip which we are thinking will be Croatia and Greece.
Today was packing and final preparation for turning François in tomorrow. I went for a quick walk in the morning down to the canal to see what boats had put in for the night. There was an American flagged boat, and a New Zealand flagged boat side by side. So there are a lot of different ways for foreigners to see Europe.
After packing Ton asked if we could do a shopping trip so that she could try to find a couple of gifts for friends. So we prepared François for travel and headed into a mall in Auxerre. The shopping trip was a bit of a bust as she didn’t find what she was looking for, so we will try again tomorrow in Sens.
The rest of the day was about preparing for the trip home and eating huge meals as we tried to empty the fridge. We did find time to relax in the evening with a good bottle of wine from Southwest France.
There is very little to talk about today. We spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, and taking inventory. Ton wants to have a written inventory at home of what we have here so we do not pack things that are redundant. Because we had been gone so long we lost track of what we had here, and found several items we had brought over were not needed. Ton decided to make a list of what was here to take home so we can pack a little leaner next time.
The couple who manages the campground love Thailand and when they found out Ton was Thai they went out of their way to tell her how much they loved the country. They are planning their vacation there for latter this year and have already visited before. The manager told us that his dream job would be in tourism in Thailand.
The plan for today was to go to Auxerre. I picked it last night because it was the first city we had visited in France. The first time we visited we couldn’t get into the campground because it didn’t open until two days later, and ended up staying in a campground just out of town. Today we had a short drive on nice country roads until we were about 20 km’s from Auxerre when the dreaded Deviation (detour) sign appeared. This time the deviation took us an extra 35km’s out of our way, but eventually we arrived at the campground. But as we pulled up the place was a zoo with bicycles everywhere. We didn’t know but there is a big bicycle race in Auxerre today, and of course the campground is full. It looks like we are not meant to stay in Auxerre.
Cafe with Burgundy tiled roof in Megannes.
We had planned to move to Megannes tomorrow to work on cleaning up François before our departure. So after a quick look at our options we headed over a day early. Megannes is a small town along the Bourgogne canal. It has a nice dock for canal boats and looks like a popular spot for people to put in for the day.
Part of the canal port in Megannes. The boat in the left side was flying an American flag.
The town is a typical small town in France with a big church, a couple of nice looking cafes and a small grocery. But it does have a really large train station for some reason.
The canal of Bourgogne, now used almost exclusively for recreation.
As we were walking back from town the wind was dead calm and the air was suddenly full with tens of thousands of gnats. For the entire walk back we were in a cloud of gnats, fortunately they were not the biting kind, just the get in your mouth, eyes and nose kind.
The next couple days will be a lot of driving. We are looking at covering about 300km’s per day as we aim for Galicia. Today we covered that distance in about 5 hours. I have been getting cocky about squeezing down tight roads in François, today we came around a corner on a narrow road and there were 4 work vans in a row coming at us, the second van and I tapped wing mirrors as we passed each other. The damage was really minimal, but it woke me up for the rest of the drive.
The Chateau Marquis de Vaubin our campground for the night.
We did have a place in mind for the end of the day. Ton rarely wants to revisit a place, but she did ask that we return to the Chateau Marquis de Vauban winery in Blaye. On our second trip to France we stumbled by here. It is a nice winery that allows about 20 RV’s to stay on site. We settled in facing the vineyards, and then attended a tasting.
One of our favorite plants. This one is approximately 50 years old.
Blaye is famous as the site of a giant fort that for 300 years defended the river approach to Bordeaux. Ton agreed to walk down there but did not want to spend a lot of time as she has had enough of forts.
Part of the fort. It is really immense.
We settled in early and watched the ducks and geese in the stream behind the van.
The designer of the fort. He is said to have stayed in the chateau at the winery while he supervised the construction.
