Blogs from Calvi, Corsica, France, Europe

And so another adventure begins….this one will take us many places in the Mediterranean, but first, to Paris for two nights. You’ve got to start somewhere, so why not Paris? Two nights in Paris is never enough but two weeks or two months may not be either. France required a “health pass” when we planned this travel experience, so the thinking was it would be simple enough to get this done in Paris and why not stay for another night before heading on? Fortunately, before we arrived things improved, and the requirement was dropped. So, instead of running around doing paperwork we were able to just run around. We were pleasantly surprised by 70 degree sunny days as the weathermen had promised us cloudy, rainy and low 60 degree temperatures. We checked out some familiar sites ... read more

Dag 8 – zaterdag 9 september 2017 – Calvi Verplaatsing naar de west-kust– 108km. Calvi is een van de mooiste badplaatsen van Corsica vanwege het 4,5km lange strand met een rijke geschiedenis die terug gaat tot de Romeinen. Calvi beweert de echte geboorteplaats te zijn van de Genuees Christoffel Columbus. Dag 9 – zondag 10 september 2017 – Calvi & Isle Rousse In de voormiddag bezochten we Calvi onder begeleiding van een plaatselijke gids. We beklommen de citadel, een reusachtig bastion, met ook hier paleizen van gouverneurs en bischoppen, een St Jean Baptist kathedraal. We zagen het zogenaamde geboortehuis van Columbus. Zoveel getuigen van 6 eeuwen aan Genuese heerschappij. We stonden ook voor het vluchthuis van Napoleon toen zijn familie politiek de kant van de Franse koning koos, tegen de toenmalige zelfstandige Corsicaanse republiek van Pascal ... read more

We walk down to the dock to buy tickets for an afternoon boat cruise to the Scandola Nature Reserve south of Calvi. Issy's very keen to get an outside seat on the boat in the fresh air away from the diesel fumes. Issy and boats have often not been a good mix, and white paper bags have sometimes been required. We decide that we must get back to the dock early so that we can be at the front of the queue and be sure of getting a seat in the fresh air. We wander around Calvi looking for somewhere to get a light lunch. We've noticed that restaurants here don't seem to be big on light lunches; most of them only seem to offer the same full blown meals at lunch as they do at ... read more

It's very hot in the apartment, so I spend most of the night trying to sleep outside on a couch on the terrace. If I did this back home I would have been eaten alive by a swarm of marauding mosquitoes, but apparently not so here. The taxi turns up; we're very relieved. I thought that we'd have the airport to ourselves at 5.30am, but it's crawling with people. Madrid airport must have a lot of runways. If the departure board is to be believed it seems that sixteen different flights will be leaving at exactly 7.05am. Security is intense. I try to walk through a scanner holding my boarding pass but I'm told I need to put it in a plastic tray. It looks very lonely. I worry that the rubber strips at the entrance ... read more

Geo: 42.5668, 8.75711Today there was no tour group we were on our own just doing our own thing. Today was a day to relax the town of Calvin, France is a small town on the coast, situated on the island of Corsica. There's only two things to do here: go to the town or go to the beach. The beach was a bit of a walk so Mom chose the town. The pier here is way too small for our ship to dock so they anchored in the bay and we tendered in. We arrived leisurely into town around 10am and walked down through the Main Street of town, actually the only street of the town. Mom found a few things in the town at the shops that she liked but the whole shopping expedition lasted ... read more