Ajaccio

The forecast for the day was rain in the morning. What was more serious though was that it was May Day and most businesses were closed. That included restaurants. I worked out from the Internet that the only shop open for lunch would be a bagel shop. So I bought a takeaway bagel and that with a drink from a convenience store was my lunch on the balcony of my B&B.

Later in the afternoon I went down to the Plage St François to walk as far west as it held my interest.

The view of the vicinity.

From the Piazza Miot (the Italian influence in the Corsican language again), you can look back on the city.

A broader view.

There is a playground there and locals were taking their evening leisure on this holiday.

Geometric play structures.

Fairly decent beach so near a city, I have to say.

End of the sand at a beach cafe/restaurant.

A few panoramas of that area.

At this point I walked inland roughly northwards along a residential street up the mountain backing Ajaccio to the Piazza de Austelitz. There's a statue of Napoleon there and a long list of his accomplishments, military and political. He was a son of Ajaccio after all.

Thus endeth my short sojourn in Ajaccio.

Morning in Bastia

So here I was, in Bastia, on Corsica. Everything seemed more orderly in France, public places were free of rubbish, vehicles were not positioned haphazardly by the side of the street. It was soothing.

The first thing I did after breakfast was to buy a Pass Liberta from the train station. This would allow me to travel for 7 days on the interurban network which formed a wonky Y shaped network between Bastia in the north-east, Calvi in the west, and Ajaccio in the south west. It would take me through the mountainous innards of the island

If you're thinking that Pass Liberta sounds more Italian than French, you're right. Corsica was settled by people from Genoa and later taken over by France. More on that later.

But to back up a bit, here's the breakfast that was served to my room, there being no dining room in the hotel. It wasn't mentioned as an inclusion on the booking site so I assumed I would be billed for it, and indeed I was at checkout. But I didn't really want to go looking for a cafe in the morning, I'd have to get dressed while still hungry.

I walked up all the way up the main street of Bastia, Bd Paoli, and this ended at the Cour d'Appel. I wondered if any of the Corsican nationalists were tried here. I could see slogans such as Libertà per Stefanu daubed on walls. This is a holiday blog so I won't go into the politics, just to mention that many Corsicans want more autonomy from mainland France, but far fewer want independence. It's an ongoing issue.

Turning left, I headed for the old citadel, Palais des Gouverneurs. This looking back on the Bd Auguste Gaudin.

From the top of the ramparts there is a view of the old port with the ferry at the pier.

Going down the Romieu Stairs there is a wind rose naming Mediterranean winds. The names are the same in many Romance languages.

The marina.

Walking towards the centre of the port which has the Église Saint Jean-Baptiste in a back street.

Reaching the other side of the old port.

A few minutes more I was on the esplanade looking at the ferry pier. The Moby ferry is the one that had brought me here the evening before.

Looking back at the old town. This esplanade is lined with restaurants.

The esplanade ends in a bridge to the Place St Nicolas, the main square, over the north-south coastal highway emerging from a tunnel.

There is a statue of Napoleon Bonaparte here. Remember that he was Corsican, from Ajaccio.

Here's a closer shot. The statue depicts him as a Roman emperor. It was commissioned by his sister Elisa for her home in Lucca, Tuscany, completed in 1813, but kept in the artist Bertolini's studio until it was finally acquired and installed by Bastia in 1853. 

For lunch I found a place serving decent Thai cuisine. Their approximation to Pad Thai was fairly good.

I'll put the evening photos in the next post as there are many and the light is different.