Quick, what language is spoken in Corsica? If you said Corsu, or lingua corsa, congratulations. Actually, French is the official language, but the names of towns, streets, restaurants, and businesses make it look like the native Corsican language is a combination of French and Italian. And of course the most famous Corsican of them all was Napoleon Bonaparte, but we had only a week there and didn’t make it far south enough to visit his birthplace.
Quick, what language is spoken in Corsica? If you said Corsu, or lingua corsa, congratulations. Actually, French is the official language, but the names of towns, streets, restaurants, and businesses make it look like the native Corsican language is a combination of French and Italian. And of course the most famous Corsican of them all was Napoleon Bonaparte, but we had only a week there and didn’t make it far south enough to visit his birthplace.
It’s a beautiful island with some spectacular scenery and the scariest cliffhanging, no shouldered, twisting, roads I’ve driven, putting Sicily and the Amalfi coast in second place (pics to come). We spent our first nights near Bastia, and explored the northern tip (Cap Corse), sparsely populated with the occasional seaside village, and a lot of coastline that looks like northern California, and farm animals wandering the roads with nary a farmer in sight (again, pics to come).
The harbor of the town of Bastia (stress on the last syllable):
Some great reflections to be had:
Buildings with character:
In Nonza, Pat peruses a menu for Corsican specialties, which were delicious. Good beer, too, infused with a little of the native chestnut.We ate outdoors 95 percent of the time in our four weeks in France.