Cap Corse and the North

Friday 09 May

We got up fairly early and had breakfast outside the tent. After this, we headed out to go and explore the north of Corsica.

At first, we followed the main road, the N197, along the northern coast through L'Ille Rousse and Lozari to a small village, Monetta, where we turned off onto the D81.  The road wound up through scrub to a small pass, Bocca di Vezzu, at 311M.  The road heads inland here into an uninhabited area known as the Desert des Agriates.  It is a very wild area and at this time of year covered in wild flowers.  There were one or two houses by the side of the road, but mosty it was free of human inhabitation!

Eventually, the road started descending into greener valley as we headed into St Florent.  This large village has a port and is rather pretty, so we stopped for a cup of coffee in the town square. 

We then continued on the D81 up the western coast of Cap Corse.  At Barbaggio, the road became the D80.  The road climbed up above the sea and followed the line of hills inland from the sea.  Many of the villages have remanants of watch towers built either by the Pisans or Genoans when they ruled the island. Nonza was very pretty, but had nowhere to park.  Many of the villages have large, elaborate, family mausoleums on the roads just outside the village. Rounding one corner on a narrow section of the road on a sheer cliff, we came across a large flock of goats.  Two of the males put on a head-butting display in front of the car.

We stopped at a hillside village called Pino and found a very pleasant place for lunch and had a Corsican Salad which consisted of local cheeses and meats with salad, accompanied by olives and candied figs.

From here, we had a choice to continue around the north of the cape or cut across a mountain road to the east coast.  We chose the cut across and followed a small road, the D180, over a pass, the Col de Ste Lucie at 381M.  From the pass the road dropped down to the village of Piazza where we stopped for the post office.  At Santa Severa, we rejoined the D80 and headed south down the west coast towards Bastia.

The road was fairly busy and we got stuck behind a coach for miles all the way into Bastia.  Just south of the town, we stopped at a large supermarket for dinner supplies.  The journey back to Calvi was done on the main road and took about an hour and a half.

Back at the campsite, we enjoyed the antics of the new arrivals on site whilst having a cool drink and eating dinner.