Corsica: Now This Is a Real Vacation

Fair warning: This is a long Nouvellettre® because I’ve spent the past week soaking up the sun on my favorite island: Corsica.

This was my ninth or tenth trip to the French island, whose southern tip nearly touches Sardinia, and that has stolen my heart as the best beach vacation destination ever.

We were four girlfriends, three of whom had never met, but I sensed they would get along famously. In fact, upon arrival at Nice Airport with my cousin, Leslie, who was one of them, she and Allison, a friend from Nice (who writes the Best of Nice Blog(opens in new tab),) discovered they had many people and interests in common and connected as if they had known each other for a lifetime. It’s a small world.

Because I have been so many times before and knew the lay of the land, I orchestrated our entire week by planning an itinerary, booking almost all our lunches and dinners, reserving our transats (beach lounges) and parasols, along with special excursions and a dinner with friends who live on the island. They were all very happy to let me do it, and I was happy to do it, knowing it would make our stay flow as easily as we hoped to float on the water.

The villa I chose was found on Booking.com, although I had vowed two years ago, after a dispute with them about our accommodations in Sicily (read all about it), never to use them again. The problem was that no other site had such good offerings. I gave in and set aside my grudge to focus on all the fun we intended to have for the week.

The house was part of a large development recently built just a short walk to my favorite beach and town, Algajola: Maristella Hotel Club(opens in new tab). There were several large villas from which to choose, but the one on which we finally agreed had three bedrooms, three en suite bathrooms and a separate WC, with a well-equipped kitchen, a lovely garden, and most importantly, a washing machine. With parking steps from the front door and a substantial U Express market a stone’s throw away—not to mention the beach—it was close to perfect. (If you book, don’t use Booking.com, go direct!)

NICE TO CALVI

Three of us flew from Nice to Calvi and our fourth friend came from Paris, arriving during dinner. Air Corsica(opens in new tab) is the airline of choice. Their ATR 72-600 propeller plane made the short hop to Corsica, landing smoothly in less than 40 minutes. It took minutes to score our Sixt(opens in new tab) rental car at the airport, make a stop at the market for our basic provisions, and check in at the villa and unpack.

“Basic provisions” included four yellow “noodles”—the floating devices the French call frites—a bottle of Corsican rosé wine from the region around Patrimonio (my favorite), an assortment of Corsican charcuterie (cold cuts), cheeses, olives and all the other necessities that make for a great stay.

Algajola is at the top of my list of great places to stay in Corsica. It is, or at least was, a tiny, charming seaside village in La Balagne, on Corsica’s northwest coast, roughly halfway between Calvi and L’Île-Rousse. That’s one thing that makes it perfectly situated to visit the beaches and towns on either side of it.

Its defining landmark is a dramatic 16th-century Genoese fortress directly above the sea that is privately owned and cannot normally be visited, but it gives Algajola tremendous character. The Algajola/Aregno beach is a broad sandy beach approximately 1.5 km long that is normally beautifully calm and relatively shallow. The sand is soft but coarse, so it doesn’t stick. Decent restaurants are dotted along the beach and the little coastal train that connects it with Calvi and L’Île-Rousse stops there.

ASSOMPTION

Dinner our first night was at Le Chariot(opens in new tab), which has been a kind of “institution” for us in the past. It has a large open-air dining area beneath shady trees just next to the church Eglise Saint-Georges d’Algajola, whose bells ring on the hour. While the atmosphere is absolutely perfect, the food on our first night was less impressive. So, don’t go for the food…go for the ambiance.

It was August 15, l’Assomption—the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary—a national public holiday in France. Because of the island’s strong Catholic traditions and devotion to the Virgin Mary, a fireworks display took place over the water beginning at 11 p.m. Along with the rest of the community, we spread our blankets on the beach and witnessed a truly magnificent and elegant display for about 20 minutes. We’d only been on the island for a few hours, but were already enthralled.

BEACH DAY ONE, AREGNO PLAGE

Our first beach day was on Aregno Plage, on transats with lunch at the Beau Rivage. The beach has golden, slightly coarse sand and beautifully clear water. It’s pretty perfect in every way and felt especially perfect that day.

The sea was a tad wavy from the light winds, the water was warm, clear as glass and heavenly. On our noodles, we floated away all of our cares. From the sidelines, we watched those enjoying the water sports, such as windsurfing, kitesurfing, bodyboarding, jet skiing and even parasailing. There were plenty of families with kids rollicking in the “very big bathtub” called the Mediterranean Sea.

Leslie had brought with her a water toy that consisted of three blow-up pillows connected by a net so that when you sat in the netting, it became an armchair in the water. I have similar gadgets, netted triangular slings that fit onto the noodles also creating a kind of armchair. Floating on the water on any of them made the world stop turning. In fact, when I used biofeedback techniques to alleviate the migraine headaches I once got when in my early 20s, thinking about floating on cool water is what stopped them altogether. This is absolutely my happy place.

Lunch at the Beau Rivage was an indescribable feast of eye candy and taste sensations. Every scene from the table was beautiful as we sat overlooking the beach. The food was copious and seriously delicious. Even the coffee was perfect. The four of us were utterly euphoric from the multilayered experience. Before we left, we made reservations for a repeat performance on our last day…to be confirmed later in the week.

ISULA ROSSA

L’Île-Rousse is just a 12-minute ride from our villa with beautiful vistas all along the way. It’s a handsome, seaside town that feels more like a functioning small town than a resort village. It was founded in 1758 by Pasquale Paoli, the Corsican independence leader, who wanted a Corsican-controlled port to compete with Genoese-held Calvi. Its name, Isula Rossa in Corsican, comes from the reddish porphyry rocks of the Les îles de la Pietra. Rather than medieval, it’s quite elegant with straight streets, pale buildings, shaded squares and a distinctly relaxed Mediterranean atmosphere.

The town’s social center, Place Paoli (appropriately named), is shaded by enormous plane trees and tall palms, and surrounded by cafés. Pétanque is played here throughout the day. On one side of the square, a beautiful classical market building supported by columns hosts a year-round market every morning, selling seasonal produce, cheese, charcuterie, honey and other Corsican products. Pedestrian streets off the marketplace are lined in stylish little boutiques, artisan shops, restaurants and cafés. Over the years I’ve done some of my best shopping here.

If you head down the Promenade A Marinella—a waterfront promenade running beside the town beaches toward the port and Pietra—you would have found us dining directly on the sand at Le Grand Large(opens in new tab). There are several restaurants that line the beach, but this is one of the best.

The sand is fine, soft and very pale, almost white, rather than the coarser golden sand found at Aregno Plage. Sinking your feet into it as you dine on grilled octopus or marinated pork, steps from the water’s edge, as the sun goes down and the ferries glide into port, is absolutely magical. It was just our second evening in Corsica and already we were in heaven.

BEACH DAY TWO, PAIN DE SUCRE

Pain de Sucre has, year-after-year, been our favorite beach, so it was booked for our second beach day. Officially known as the Plage de Sainte-Restitude in the commune of Lumio, the name comes from the well-known beach restaurant there, but gradually became attached to the beach itself.

It is a very different experience from Aregno Plage. It’s a small sandy cove only about 100 meters long, framed by rocks and facing across the Bay of Calvi with a lovely view toward Calvi and its citadel. The beach is particularly good on a calm, low-wind day. But when the wind and swell rise, the cove can develop significant waves and swimming may become dangerous. The restaurant specializes in Mediterranean dishes, fish and shellfish. The setting is beautiful, particularly around sunset, but prices are a bit higher than at an ordinary beach café.

The wind and waves were up, but not dangerous. Paddling out beyond the breaking waves meant you could ride them in. It was like being on a roller coaster, an absolute water park without the admission. At the top of every wave I found myself screaming “Wow!,” smiling the entire way in, and landing on the sand at the shore in a heap. It took a lot of energy, so going out was more of a challenge than Aregno’s calm floating, but more fun than I can remember.

The restaurant was every bit as delicious as I had remembered and the atmosphere even better. Another perfect beach day, success!

Special note: the sand at Pain de Sucre is known as a good place to search for an Îil de Sainte-Lucie, a polished orange-and-white operculum of a sea snail, traditionally carried in Corsica as a good-luck charm.

A CORSICAN CALVI

There were concerts taking place all over the island that week to celebrate Corsican music. Our plan was to attend one at 9 p.m. in the Cathédrale Saint Jean-Baptiste in the Citadel in Calvi that evening. We set out early from the villa to get our tickets, have dinner at a recommended restaurant on the port and then hike up to the citadel for the concert.

The hike we hadn’t expected to make was from a faraway parking lot as we crept into town behind the heavy traffic, likely everyone trying to do the same thing. Our restaurant of choice was L’Ange des Mers-Casa di u Pescadore(opens in new tab), a small, family-run seafood restaurant at the quieter end of Calvi’s marina, beneath the citadel. What distinguishes it from the other port restaurants is that the family has its own fishing boat, so the menu is built around local catch rather than generic seafood dishes.

The family themselves took care of us. Daughter Virginie was full of “piss and vinegar” as we asked her a million questions, and she gave it back to us with sarcastic wit. We fell in love with her. The mother was running the cash register and barking at the servers. We fell in love with her, too. The food was every bit as memorable—fresh sole, spider-crab linguine, lobster ravioli—all this at the edge of the water and the citadel. It is not surprising that the reviews about the service are mixed: many people found the family atmosphere warm and entertaining, while some found it eccentric or inconsistent during busy periods. We could understand why!

At 9 p.m., we chose not to hike to the top of the citadel, and instead headed back to the car—about a 20- to 30-minute walk away. Just before arriving at the lot, we came upon two local musicians, playing and singing Corsican music directly on the sidewalk, entertaining those in the adjacent café, with the cars whizzing past them in the background. A drink there to hear the music and rest our feet and bones was the perfect end to a perfect evening…except for one thing…

En route to the car we noticed a car wash; the kind you just drive through. When we picked up the car at the airport, it was as dusty and dirty as any car could be. Sixt personnel explained that a water shortage was preventing them from washing their cars, so we just accepted it as it was: clean on the inside, dirty on the outside. This was our opportunity to get it clean and shiny again, so we drove it through and happily headed home for yet another day of Corsican delight.

BEACH DAY THREE, ARINELLA AND THE MATAHARI

Le Matahari(opens in new tab) has served the Plage de l’Arinella in Lumio for over 40 years. The plage is a small, picturesque cove facing the Gulf and Citadel of Calvi. Calvi is in the distance, and the beach is only about 100 meters long, with golden very coarse sand and pebbles. The water is shallow and clear with a rocky bottom that harbors small fish and crabs, making it an excellent place for snorkeling and particularly for babies.

Parents with young children dominate the scene. It seems incongruous with the exclusive, high-end clientele of the cove, but the children are amazingly well behaved…and well-dressed. We watched lazily, in awe, then paddled out into the calm waters every once in a while.

The restaurant is an elegant version of beachside heaven, complete with crisp white tablecloths and napkins, and haute cuisine fit for the queens we are. There is indeed a Greek influence thanks to the owner, Alexandre Rutily, who founded Le Matahari in 1983 and has operated it ever since. He greeted us as we came in and treated me as if he had remembered me from the past. A Greek chef has combined Corsican ingredients with Greek spices and broader Mediterranean flavors, which explains the restaurant’s slightly exotic menu. Unsurprisingly, the restaurant has become a favorite gathering place for prominent Balagne residents…and us visitors.

TURN OF EVENTS

Plans changed when Leslie wasn’t feeling so well, so we switched our dinner reservations from Tuesday to Thursday in Sant Antonino and from Thursday to Tuesday in Algajola. When we walked into the old village of Algajola to take our seats at U Castellu, it wasn’t there where I had remembered it. We called to get an exact location, only to discover that the restaurant was on the other side of the island and I had confused it with one that had closed since my last stay in Algajola. We had to punt.

La Vieille Cave(opens in new tab) was there staring us in the face, with tables to be had and a 4.6 rating on Google, so we took our chances. As it turns out, La Vieille Cave is one of Algajola’s long-established restaurants tucked into the old village near the château on Piazza di l’Olmu. Its atmospheric interior resembles an old stone cellar, while outside, it has a pleasant terrace on the little square.

We had no idea, but its specialty is the pierrade, meat or seafood brought to the table with a very hot stone so you cook each piece yourself. The server carried around the hot stones as if they were light as a feather, but of course, were very heavy and very hot.

Cooking directly on a heated stone is an ancient practice. Prehistoric people placed flat stones in or beside a fire, allowed them to absorb the heat, and then cooked pieces of meat or fish on their surfaces. Stone retains and distributes heat steadily, making it a useful cooking surface long before metal cookware existed.

The modern tablet-top Pierrade, however, is French and was invented in 1985 by Joel Bauduret, reportedly in a restaurant in the the French Alps near Lyon, and marketed beginning in 1986. The name was registered as a trademark for the electrically heated natural-stone appliance. Tefal later helped popularize it for home entertaining.

Who knew? Not us. Nonetheless, it was fun and delicious and insanely copious. We left stuffed to the gills, hoping that our friend back home was feeling better.

ABORTED BOAT

The weather conditions this week were unfavorable for boat trips (wind, rough seas, and the risk of thunderstorms, even though we never experienced much of it), so Calvi Evasion(opens in new tab) was forced to cancel all trips through Saturday. We were out of luck. Our plan was to take the excursion to the Scandola Reserve and have lunch at Le Bon Espoir(opens in new tab) in the tiny enclave of Girolata that day. The trip and lunch have always been one of the highlights of the Corsican adventure, but it just wasn’t happening this time around.

It turned out to be a good thing. Leslie, wasn’t feeling well, so we took the day to suss out a small clinic where she could see a doctor. It was reported that he was very good, very kind…and very handsome. Leslie had good advice, the right drugs and a day of rest. Meanwhile, Calvi Evasion refunded our money for the excursion that wouldn’t take place. Instead of beach time, we indulged ourselves for a couple of hours at Maristella’s cool pool. We didn’t regret it.

CORSICAN AMERICANS

Over the years, I’ve developed friendships with a few Americans who have been living on the island for many years; one of them since the late 1970s. The others have been coming for 20 years, but settled in Calvi full-time about nine years ago. It’s been my habit to connect and meet for dinner and catch up, and so we did this time around, too.

They recommended a restaurant they hadn’t been to before, but had heard was very good just on the outskirts of Calvi, Chez Marie(opens in new tab). Chez Marie serves generous, informal French-Corsican cooking centered on meat grilled over a wood fire, where flavor and hospitality matter more than elaborate presentation.

The atmosphere is also unusual. It is away from the polished port restaurants, with a garden-like setting, and motoring or Formula One memorabilia connected to the proprietor’s former work in racing paddocks. The server and proprietor, Corinne—much like Virginie at l’Ange des Mers—was Corsican through and through, from her no-nonsense attitude to her delight when we were surprised by the quantity and quality of her servings.

There is no fish on the menu, only veal, beef, and pork, all cooked over wood. We all ordered pork chops with myrtle-wine sauce that took 25 minutes to prepare. While we waited, we indulged in appetizers and my two groups of friends got to know one another. When the pork chops came, our eyes must have lit up like Christmas trees at the size of the chops and copious portions of fried potatoes.

We slowly ate our way through the enormous hunk of pork. Only two of us could finish our chops. We left extolling the virtues of the experience to Sylvain, the chef and proprietor, who wanted to ensure our total happiness. This was a local experience through and through, so if we had wanted refined seafood, in a romantic harbor view setting…this wasn’t it.

TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

Our friends’ advice and ChatGPT helped us create a round-robin itinerary to a few hilltop villages for Thursday’s outing. The loop included (in this order) Corbara, Pigna, Aregno, Montemaggiore, Zilia and back to Algajola.

There were many special sites within each of the towns, but we didn’t bother. It was enough to wander the streets and get a feel for each town, all of which were nearly devoid of people, with the exception of Pigna. Busloads of visitors were descending there and maneuvering the tiny, cobblestone streets. (Don’t attempt Pigna unless you’re wearing good, solid shoes, and I don’t recommend it for anyone unstable on their feet!)

Pigna was the prettiest and most atmospheric stop, but the toughest to maneuver. There we had lunch on a terrace at A Moresca(opens in new tab)overlooking beautiful views of the sea towns below. ChatGPT will tell you that Montemaggiore—in the commune of Montegrosso—is the most rewarding of the villages, but while we agreed with that assessment, we also found it was the most rundown, if not authentic, with more difficult roads to get to it.

Zilia(opens in new tab) is known for its mineral water and for Domaine Alzipratu(opens in new tab), one of Balagne’s established wine estates. By that time, we were ready to head home, but stopped along the way for sorbet and coffee at a café in Calenzana.

We were told by our Corsican/American friends not to miss the produce stand at the entrance to Corbara, so we made a point of stopping there. They were right. It was worth the stop. We loaded up on produce and Corsican specialties for dinner that evening at the villa, so we cancelled our previously booked dinner in Sant’Antonino. Another trek to the top of the world was not high on our list of favorite things after such a long day on mountain roads. (Sant’Antonino was just going to have to wait till another trip to Corsica, just like the boat excursion to the Scandola Reserve.)

The views of the sea below and the towns along the water, coupled with the mountain views, took our breath away. If you only see the beaches in Corsica, then you’re missing some of the best parts of the island.

There was no shortage of fun and laughter all through the week. The running joke was Allison’s rabbit-out-of-a-hat tricks that kept us laughing and amazed. Every time someone mentioned that they had forgotten this or needed that, Allison was able to pull it out of her bag with ease, saying, “Oh, I have one for you.” It might have been an extra pair of slippers, or sunglasses she wasn’t using, or water shoes for coarse sand or pebbles, or an extra towel, or an extension cord, or a sun hat, or a netted laundry bag for lingerie…it went on and on.

I was the laundress. Don’t ask why it’s something I love doing, but give me a washing machine, a drying rack and clothespins and I’m happy. Perhaps I was the king’s laundress in a past life? We’d never have rented the villa without the washing machine, especially when on a beach vacation when you come home covered in sand, suntan lotion and salty wet clothing. I did a load of laundry every single day.

Leslie was the primary driver, although I drove a few times. The car was a Cupra, a Spanish performance-oriented car brand created in 2018 by SEAT, part of the Volkswagen Group. We’d never even heard of it before. While learning all its bells and whistles was a bit of a challenge, it was quiet, smooth, and served us well.

At the beginning of the trip, after only one day into our week of R&R, Allison said “Now, this is a REAL vacation.” She was right. I’ve still never found another summer vacation spot as perfect as Corsica…and everyone agreed with me.

(Don’t tell anyone. We don’t want to spoil it.)

A la prochaine…