Corsica holidays: La dolce vita on the French island basking in Italian sun
If Napoleon had had any sense he would never have left Ajaccio. It would have saved him and much of Europe a great deal of trouble. Old Boney was lucky enough to have been born on Corsica, one of the world's most beautiful islands, described as a 'mountain in the sea'.
But ambition took him from his sandy shores, vineyards, Clementine orchards and almond, chestnut and olive groves. And the rest really is history. Even his arch foe Nelson is irrevocably linked with Corsica.
The heroic British admiral famously lost the sight of his right eye at the siege of Calvi in 1794. And Christopher Columbus, it turns out, may have been born in Calvi, where today the 2nd Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment is based in the city's spectacular Genoese citadel.
Grand history: It's thought Christopher Columbus may have been born in Calvi and Napoleon was from Ajaccio
We tried to reach Calvi in Corsica's north-western Balagne region so fertile it's sometimes known as 'the garden of Corsica' by train. But the once-a-day Trinicellu ('Little Train') narrow-gauge railway, nicknamed the TGV (train grande vibration), that runs along the coast between Calvi and Bastia via PonteLeccia was disabled by a strike. So we drove the 22 miles from our baseat L'Ile Rousse instead.
The train also runs between Ponte Leccia and Ajaccio. There used to be five trains a day, but by the time we got there it was down to just one. And the strike denied us even that.
Tourists walk along the track to get to a popular beach: not much chance of being mown down by a train that either runs ! once a d ay, or doesn't even run at all.
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Throughout our stay, for some reason, I didn't once feel I was in France, even though it is one of that nation's 27 regions. Corsica seemed to be another country altogether. It's the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean after Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus and the most mountainous: some peaks retain snow even in midsummer. One selection, it seemed to me, resembled Wyoming's jagged- toothed Teton range. The island's highest peak, Monte Cinto, reaches 8,878ft.
Corsica is also blessed with one of the word's lowest population densities about 78 people per square mile, compared with England's 1,000-plus.
Balzac described the island as 'a French island basking in the Italian sun'. Over the centuries it has been invaded and / or governed by the Carthaginians, Greeks, Etruscans, Romans, Vandals, Visigoths, Saracens and Genoese, who ruled the place for almost 400 years. Even after the French first got their hands on it, the British briefly ran Corsica, from 1794-96.
Ooh la la: L'Ile Rousse in Corsica prides itself on its smart image
Almost anyone who has visited Corsica will rhapsodise about how green and lush it ! is, how beautiful the hilltop villages are, the superb walking opportunities, and how good (though expensive) the food is. You can tell the real walkers when they disgorge from the huge ferries that dock at L'Ile Rousse. They are lean and carry huge haversacks. Those with big tummies are more likely to be here for la dolce vita.
And be prepared to pay up to 100 (about 86) or more for dinner for two with a bottle of local ros in one of the many good restaurants in the narrow streets (one of them called Rue Napoleon) in L'Ile Rousse.
At La Bodega, the occasional screeching swift swooped between us to grab a midge while we ate, prompting my wife, Vivianne, to say: 'Irritating little insects c'mon swifts and grab 'em!' Visitors also enthuse about the island's history, and how friendly the locals are, unless you happen to be French which 69 per cent of the tourists are. Then you might, just might, run into a little unpleasantness, particularly if you own a palatial second home here and visit for only a week or two each year, thus helping to push up property prices.
Vivianne takes on giant gambas with gusto
So are there any other snags, or 'problems in paradise', as my wife put it? Well, apart from the fearsomely loud, fast and dangerous quad bikes, how about the veritable fleets of camper vans that come off the ferries from Sardinia, Toulon, Nice and Savona?
They notoriously clog up traffic, adding to the chaos sometimes caused by stray cows or huge flocks of sheep being moved across the N196, the principal main road that follows some two-thirds of the island's 650 miles of coastline.
There are few practical detours unless you're prepared to tackle the sinuous, narrow minor roads that meander up to the spectacular villages clinging to the hillsides.
Actors Tom Conti and Alexandra Bastedo are both Co! rsica af icionados. So too is Jeremy Clarkson, who doubtless enjoys negotiating its somewhat daunting hairpin bends. But not everyone has the skill to negotiate the mountain roads without incident.
While we were sitting in Place Paoli, the picturesque main square in L'Ile Rousse, which with its tall palm trees and sturdy church reminded me of the Chilean capital Santiago, a very smart red Ferrari roared by. 'That's the guy who makes a fortune straightening out bent cars,' we were told. The Beckhams are rumoured to have visited too, but then that's true of almost everywhere.
The fact that Corsica is on the expensive side is seen by some as being a mixed blessing. Our hosts, Corsican Places, even reproduce in their charter's in-flight magazine an article by Dom Joly headlined: 'No riffraff please, this is Corsica.'
My wife put it another way: 'It's not too highbrow, and not bling. It's just right.'
Getting there
Corsican Places (0845 330 2113, www.corsica.co.uk) has seven nights at the Hotel Santa Maria in L'Ile Rousse from 849. The price is based on two sharing a room with breakfast and includes return flights Stansted-Calvi and transfers. Corsican Places offers a wide selection of hotels, villas and apartments across the island.
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